Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ address at the presentation of the Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and digital transformation projects of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs (07.07.2022)

Mr. Lyberopoulos will analyze, right after the Secretary General, the mode of its operation. But I think you will all realize that it constitutes a completely different concept that will allow us to defend, now and in the future, the rights of our country in times that are becoming increasingly difficult.
And also, if we are able to absorb the funds then we will have a solid basis to ask for an increase in the budget, which is absolutely necessary.
Simply put, this practically means that a dossier must be there when they assume their duties.
I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your cooperation, for creating what is presented today.
Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, but also countries such as Sweden, Ireland, and Cyprus have already incorporated such a mode of operation.
Nevertheless, in Greece, we are the first Ministry to do this. I believe, and I think you all agree, that strategic planning is an absolutely essential tool for modern diplomacy and the modern environment; for diplomacy in the challenging 21st century.
It introduces three key changes to the way our Ministry operates. Firstly, the three pillars of our diplomacy are unified and made to interact through the five strategic axes, 39 strategic goals and countless actions.
Secondly, by setting long-term objectives, we achieve what we all think was missing: to have institutional continuity in all of our and your efforts. Every Head whether a political Head or an official Head, needs to be perfectly aware of the objectives that are required from him to be accomplished in the position he takes up.
Let me tell you that when I first came to the Ministry and we were negotiating the first MDCA at the time, I asked for a copy of the first Kissinger letter of 1977. It took us about a week to discover it.
And there must be another possibility, precisely because we are not operating in an environment of laboratory conditions, but in a constantly changing reality, provision should be made for corrective adjustments – and such a provision has indeed been made.
And I have to say they should be assessed administratively or even politically, if you like, on the basis of the rate of achievement of those goals.
An integrated operational procedure management system is being created that depicts every action, so that actions and goals can be digitally linked to the resources available.
We are also working to establish a Global Media Center, a platform for the gathering of all information from the world’s media, which will radically transform the conduct of public diplomacy.
And this also relates to the Ministry’s limited financial resources – but I will come back to this later.
Since June the virtual assistant has been operating on the websites of all our Consular Authorities, in Greek and English, but by next May a platform for the digital management of applications will be completed, which is far more interesting.
As regards human resources, by the end of 2022, 170 new employees will have been recruited. The Ministry needs new hires and also needs ongoing retraining of its existing valuable staff.
And, of course, when we talk about proper allocation and distribution of resources, we have to escape our Eurocentric mentality.
Of course I understand that perhaps all this falls outside the framework of our traditional working culture, but I also feel that most of you have no qualms about the need to move towards that direction.
In any case, with your help, we have opened our horizons in the Gulf, in Africa, in India and, beyond that in the Indo-Pacific, wherever our country’s strategic interests lead us.
Therefore, in this context of allocation of human resources in relation to the actions and axes, the draft Presidential Decree on the composition of the Missions Abroad is already in the final stage of preparation. It rationalizes these compositions on the basis of what we want to pursue and achieve.
And we are also setting up a system for the electronic exchange of classified diplomatic correspondence, this needs no explanation, it is very clear.
To offer an example concerning Greek-Russian relations, to what extent could our planning have held up without any adjustments following the invasion of Ukraine?
The third, equally important element is the use of resources, either human or financial resources. They must serve the actions and goals.
To be honest with you, I believe today is a day of particular joy for the Ministry and for me personally, and for the political leadership of the Ministry: the Alternate Minister, Mr. Varvitsiotis, the Deputy Ministers, Mr. Katsaniotis and Mr. Fragogiannis, the Secretary General Mr. Demiris, Mr. Chryssoulakis, all of us.
I don’t think that befits a modern country. Apart from the Headquarters, one other issue that is of much more interest is the digitalization of services provided by the Consular Authorities. This, may I say, is the fulfillment of the homeland’s obligation to provide services to Greeks abroad.
The second is the digitization of the Diplomatic and Historical Archives, which is not merely an electronic repository of documents. It is not a digital conversion of what we already have in paper form, which, by the way, would itself be extremely useful.
That is why we have had to face, and we still face to a lesser extent, an oxymoron, that we receive the least amount of funding from the state budget than any other Ministry and, on the other hand, every year we have to return funds because we have not been able to absorb them.
And we need to broaden the scope, to define job descriptions and, as I mentioned, relate them to goals, in order to judge everyone objectively and not just on the subjective, and by its very nature occasionally incorrect, opinion of a Minister.
Humanity is changing. Things are changing, we all need to learn new things, acquire new skills. So we need to radically change our initial training, but we also need to establish our continuous retraining.
But there are two more things. The first one is the financial management of the Ministry by digitizing the process and linking the Headquarters with the Diplomatic Missions and Consular Authorities of Greece abroad.
As things currently stand, the Minister is updated on the financial management of the country’s Consulates at some point in the autumn.
It is not possible to have a hundred actions with minimal staff in one Embassy and to have ten actions with excess staff in another.
When I first came here, the returns amounted to approximately €32 million a year. You’ve managed, or we’ve managed, if you will, through hard work, to get it down to €13 million in the last year.
Thank you so much.
Political diplomacy, economic diplomacy, that is, the promotion of exports and the attraction of investment and, of course, public diplomacy: public diplomacy, which in the case of our country comprises elements that are unique in the world, as it encompasses civilization and culture, religious diplomacy and the Greek diaspora. Interaction is therefore absolutely essential.
Instead of just monitoring the press at huge cost, dozens of Press and Communication Officers will be able to work on the crucial task of promoting the country’s positions.
As a result we will therefore carry out tasks rapidly and digitally, enabling our excellent human resources to do creative work.
And I believe we can achieve this. So I come back to say that today, when we are discussing strategic planning and this Plan, is an important day.
However, what we’re talking about here is much more than that: creating an interactive archive that will enable you, the staff, the diplomatic staff to cross-check, review and find information; in other words, the creation of an overview of the past. I think it’s an essential tool for carrying out your work.
It is a way of collective thinking and collective working. And I would like to congratulate Mr. Lyberopoulos and the extremely competent team that worked with him, and I would also like to congratulate all the Ministry officials who contributed to this effort.
Because it is a result of collective work, bottom-up rather than top-down. Of course, what for us is an innovation we are happy about, a cause for celebration, for most advanced countries it is a common practice.
Because strategic planning is not merely an innovation for the administrative management of information. It is much more than that.
I think everyone here has been struggling in recent years with financial management issues. This is somewhat understandable, given the nature of the Ministry and the fact that staff training is not primarily focused on financial matters.
I more or less believe that with everyone’s help, with everyone’s cooperation and support, the Ministry,  albeit with some delay, is entering the 21st century.
And precisely to facilitate this transition into the 21st century, we are developing a number of digital projects to support this effort.
But against the most difficult times ahead, we can contrast our own greater will to meet our constitutional obligation to our country and to the Greek citizens.
Four projects with funding from the Recovery and Resilience Fund that amount to more than €60 million. I think our Ministry has never had such assistance. These are being tendered in the next few weeks by Information Society SA and constitute the digital transformation of the Strategic and Operational Plan, that is, the digital mapping of what we are discussing today.
This will also allow us to have full knowledge in real time of what is happening in all the Missions Abroad.

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