DEFEA – Defence Exhibition Athens will take place in Athens, from 22 to 24 June 2020. The organization of the exhibition, which will take place under the auspices of the Ministry of National Defence/GDDIA, was announced at a press conference attended by the Minister of National Defence, Mr Evangelos Apostolakis, by exhibition organizer ROTA SA with the support of the Union of Greek Manufacturers of Defence Material (SEKPY).

Announcement of DEFEA 2020 in Athens (Picture source: DEFEA)

The exhibition, which aims to become a point of reference for the domestic defence industry, as well as an event with a broader regional reach in South-eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, will present land, sea, air defence systems and homeland security to a specialized audience from Greece and the international community.

The chairman of ROTA SA, Giorgos Tsaousoglou, declared: “We are certain that this exhibition will be a success, and we hope it will open a new path for growth of the country’s defence industry. At ROTA, we are ready to offer the experience and know-how of the largest professional exhibition organizer in Greece, so that the results from the participation of exhibitors and visitors to DEFEA can be entirely satisfactory”

The chairman of SEKPY, Tasos Rozolis, declared: “DEFEA is here to bridge a major gap. Greece and the Hellenic Defence Industry (HDI) are re-entering the global map of Defence Exhibitions, after an absence of ten years. The Hellenic Defence Industry (HDI), a strategic axis of National Security, is aware that crises can be overcome only through extroversion, competitiveness and the development of innovative products. (...) The participation of foreign defence companies is deemed necessary and particularly beneficial, both for promoting their products on the Greek Defence Market, and for an opportunity to develop the necessary partnerships with their Greek peers, to address the domestic and international defence market”.

DEFEA’s Exhibition Manager, Vassilis Barkas, added: “Our main objective is to organized a large, integrated and truly international high-level exhibition. With the cooperation of SEKPY and under the valuable auspices of the Ministry of National Defence, we are certain that the exhibition will constitute a suitable forum for the reinforcement and growth of the domestic defence industry. We, together with SEKPY, will ensure the international nature of the exhibition; we will invite major international missions and major exhibitors from the international defence industry, in view of creating new partnerships and collaborations”.