National Defense Minister Nikos Dendias on Friday paid a visit to the Hellenic Navy frigate 'HS Spetsai' at the Salamina naval base, before its sets sail for the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to participate in the EUNAVFOR operation 'Aspides'. Dendias was accompanied by Chief of Hellenic National Defence General Staff, General Dimitrios Choupis, and Chief of Hellenic Navy General Staff, Vice Admiral Dimitrios-Eleftherios Kataras. The minister was briefed by the frigate's captain on its mission, and then addressed the frigate's captain, officers, and staff on the importance of the European operation 'Aspides' to protect merchant ships from attacks. Aspides, he said, "are a step in the direction of creating a European Defense Branch," and he added that Greece "has an absolutely vested interest in the creation of a common European defense policy and a possibility of implementing this European defense policy through European forces."...