Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis held a teleconference with Irish Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, Peter Burke, in a very good atmosphere. The discussion focused, inter alia, on migration, EU enlargement and the energy and inflation crisis. Mr. Varvitsiotis also briefed Mr Burke on Turkey’s provocative conduct. Moreover, the two Ministers exchanged views on Brexit.

The Alternate Minister told Mr. Burke that “we need to do more to strengthen our common project, the EU, and to create shared approaches to common problems”.

In this context, Mr. Varvitsiotis emphasized the need to not waste another opportunity and to take decisions to tackle illegal migration by protecting Europe’s borders.

Furthermore, the Alternate Minister informed Mr. Burke on Turkey’s instrumentalization of migrants, but also on the extreme Turkish rhetoric against Greece, which goes as far as questioning Greece’s sovereignty over the islands of the Eastern Aegean.