Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis’ interview with El País newspaper (Madrid, 27.11.2021)
“We are not happy about the fact of the strengthening of defence cooperation between Madrid and Ankara. “Turkey is a country that does not respect International Law,” stressed Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais and journalist Cecilia Ballesteros, published today under the headline “The EU has borders and it should defend them”.
Mr. Varvitsiotis noted that Greece wants to play a stabilizing role in the region and is in favour of developing a strategic security axis in the Mediterranean, as “Turkey pursues a policy on the basis of military power”. “We are trying to enhance our relations with all the countries in the region, especially with Israel, Egypt and Cyprus”. While the defence agreements with the USA and France “are along the lines of the European Defense Mechanism”.
The Alternate Minister made a special reference to the issue of migration, emphasizing that the Greek government, in the face of the instrumentalization of migration by Turkey, has implemented a restrictive policy of preventing the entry of illegal migrants through/crossing our sea borders, which does not endanger any human life, is not applied in secret as it is monitored by all international actors in the region, such as Frontex and NATO, and defends the principle that “the EU has borders and should defend them”. In contrast to the Turkish Coast Guard, the Alternate Minister said, which instead of picking up migrant boats, it forces them back, endangering human lives. In addition, Mr. Varvitsiotis stressed that Greece has reduced the number of people it hosts from 30,000 living in miserable living conditions in 2015, to 3,000 today, having built new reception facilities which provide refugees decent conditions.
Speaking about the new German government, the Alternate Minister said that “it should realize that we are in a new Europe” because of the effects of the pandemic around the world and “instead of taking strict measures, the new stability measures should aim at EU development”.
Finally, Mr. Varvitsiotis noted that we can speak of a full recovery of the Greek economy from the recession due to pandemic, as this year will end with a growth of almost 8%, while growth of 5% is expected for next year.