The General Directorate of National Defence Policy and International Relations of the Ministry of National Defence, following the successful conduct of the 1st Experts’ Workshop, in Alexandroupolis, from 28 to 29 June 2022, entitled: “Instrumentalisation of illegal migration in the framework of hybrid warfare. The role of the military”, continues the implementation of actions to strengthen the bilateral defence relations between Greece and Austria, with its participation in the 2nd Experts’ Workshop, which will take place in Vienna, from 28 to 30 September 2022.

The aim of the above workshop is to draw useful conclusions through the study and analysis of case studies of the migration crisis, to highlight the best practices to prevent and deter the instrumentalisation of the migration issue, as well as the role of the Armed Forces in its management.

In particular, it shall examine the impact of irregular migration on border security, its possible instrumentalisation by international state or non-state actors to meet their malicious strategic objectives, and the emergence of related threats and challenges. In addition, the role of the Armed Forces in managing the migration-refugee issue in Europe will be discussed, both in the current period and in the future.

It should be noted that this initiative will be concluded with the organisation of an International Conference in Vienna from 05 to 07 December 2022 in order to publicize the conclusions of the two workshops and present them to the Ministries of Defence of the two countries and to our partners in the European Union (EU).