ATHENS — Talking to reporters, government spokesperson Stelios Petsas on Monday noted that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had unveiled a comprehensive plan for strengthening Greece's defence capability and economy during the Thessaloniki Helexpo Forum at the weekend, with a 6- and 12-step plan, respectively.

Regarding the country's deterrent force, he said there will be six initiatives that "compose a very robust programme, which will become a national shield.

On the economy, Petsas said that with the 12 initiatives that Mitsotakis announced "he proved that we care and that we can. We care for enterpreneurship, for workers and for the unemployed. We can because we have gained the trust of the international markets."

He underlined that "the total support to the Greek economy from the above initiatives is approximately 7.0 billion euros, plus 3.0 billion euros that concerns boosting liquidity from the banking system. It is a generous and ambitious package of 10 billion euros. A package that can give a strong boost to Greece's economy."

Petsas also referred to the Turkish provocations, adding that it is positive that Turkey did not issue a new Navtex and withdrew the survey vessel "Oruc Reis" from the Eastern Mediterranean. "It remains to be seen whether it will be consistent and follow through, abstaining from stoking tension and blackmail and thus enabling us to resume the exploratory talks from where they left off – due to Turkey – in March 2016," the spokesperson said.

On the issue of Moria , Petsas noted that "it is clear that some among those that are now without shelter are responsbile for everything that happened. The camp was burned down by refugees and migrants that wanted to blackmail the government, in order to bring about their immediate transfer off the island. We gave priority to the removal of the unaccompanied children and, though an unprecedented mobilisation, we have already set up a temporary hosting centre in a different location, in which all beneficiaries can enter after taking the test against COVID -19."

The government spokesman also announced Mitsotakis' programme for the next few days, saying that the prime minister is to meet European Council president Charles Michel at 12:45 on Tuesday, followed by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry at 17:00 the same day and the executive director of ESM Klaus Regling at 18:00. Later on Tuesday evening Mitsotakis will attend a dinner with his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama.

On Wednesday at 11:00, the prime minister will have his regular monthly meeting with President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou and afterward he will have lunch with the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, while at 20:00 he will participate via video call in the annual Economist conference.