Nikos Dendias

Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias was heading to Lithuania on Tuesday to attend the North Atlantic Council meeting of NATO defense ministers in the capital, Vilnius.

Dendias will also attend the dinner for defense and foreign affairs ministers on the same evening.

Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said the government will "seek consensus" on issues of national importance, during a three-day plenary discussion on the new government's policy program on Saturday.

Greece's newly appointed defense minister has welcomed a de-escalation of tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, expressing hope this would lead to a "climate of trust" without directly referring to Turkey.

Defense Minister Yaşar Güler and his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias, have agreed in a phone call on July 5 to resume confidence-building meetings halted last year, the Turkish Defense Ministry has announced.

Defence Minister Nikos Dendias will make an official visit to Cyprus on Thursday to meet with country officials.

He will first be received by Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides at the Presidential Mansion and will later have a private meeting with the Defence Minister Michalis Georgallas. After the talks the two ministers will make statements to the press.

New Defence Minister Nikos Dendias discussed Greek-Israeli relations with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in a phone call on Monday, the minister said. 

The two officials focused on "the security and stability in the wider region," Dendias said on Twitter, adding that Gallant invited him to visit Israel at his earliest convenience.

After not only consolidating its position as the country's major political force, but at the same time further increasing an already huge gap separating it from the second and third largest parties, SYRIZA and PASOK, New Democracy returned to power with a higher percentage than it got in the 2019 election.

New government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis announced the new ministerial cabinet of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday.

Several prominent ministers were shuffled into new positions, including former foreign minister Nikos Dendias assuming the Defense Ministry and former digital governance minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis taking over as education minister.

With the new cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis expected to be announced on Monday afternoon, sources have said that the frontrunners for the post of Foreign and Finance Ministries are Giorgos Gerapetritis and Kostis Hatzidakis, respectively. 

Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to shake up his Cabinet after winning Sunday's election in a landslide, moving top conservative cadres and adding new faces to the mix.