Briefing of diplomatic correspondents by Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Alexandros Papaioannou (30.03.2022)

A. PAPAIOANNOU: Good morning. I will make some very brief introductory remarks and then I will be at your disposal. First of all, as far as Ukraine is concerned, I would like to say a few things.

Firstly, as you have seen, the Minister announced last week that Greece stands ready to provide humanitarian aid to Mariupol, and in fact, the Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed his intention, if conditions allow it, to lead a mission of humanitarian aid himself.

He made this announcement while meeting our Consul General in Mariupol, Mr. Androulakis. The second thing he announced -as you have also seen- is about setting up a coordination team in Romania under the Ambassador, Mr. Kostellenos, with the participation, of course, of the Ambassador to Romania, Ms. Grammata, as well as with Mr. Androulakis and Mr. Dochtsis, our Consul General in Odessa.

Now, since you will certainly ask me when this mission will take place, the answer is very simple: no one can know. You saw what the French Presidency stated yesterday following the Macron-Putin telephone conversation. Unfortunately, the situation is what it is. But our proposal, of course, remains on the table.

I would also like to clarify something because I read some media reports regarding the possibility of the Minister travelling to Kyiv. When Mr. Dendias spoke to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Mr. Kuleba last week, his Ukrainian counterpart told him two things.

Firstly, he naturally thanked him for his proposal to deliver humanitarian aid. He stressed that President Zelenskyy himself thanked him as well. As you know, the President of Ukraine thanked the Minister for this proposal publicly.

The second thing he said to him was, of course, that his invitation to the Minister to travel to Kyiv is always open. We will see when this visit will take place. I say again, there is nothing I could announce at the moment.

Now, as regards last week and the week before, the Minister made two important trips which I would like to touch upon briefly. The first one was his trip to New York, where he met with the UN Secretary-General. And the other one was last week when he travelled to New Delhi, India.

As expected, the meeting with the UN Secretary-General primarily focused on Ukraine. But what I want to emphasise once again, because it is very important to us, is that the Minister raised with both the Secretary-General and the Indian Foreign Minister the matter of our candidacy for the UN Security Council for the ’25-’26 term. We should not lose sight of this.

As a matter of fact, and I would like to emphasise this, India is currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council. Therefore, it plays a significant role.
In addition to this candidacy, the Minister also announced our candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council for the 2028-2030 term, as well as for the Presidency of the UN General Assembly in 2035. These are consecutive candidacies which we intend to promote.

Since we are talking about India, let me also tell you briefly, that apart from the developments in Ukraine, the discussion was very interesting, because on the one hand we informed them about the developments in our region, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Cyprus issue, in which India has traditionally, for decades, played an important, constructive role, as the Minister himself said.

But beyond that, there was a very interesting briefing from the Indian side on the broader developments in Asia and the Indian Ocean region, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, China, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, that is areas where Greece has been absent for quite some time and, of course, we wish to return.

The other thing I would like to note, especially from the trip to India, is that India and Greece alike share a clear commitment to International Law and International Law of the Sea. As you know, India has signed Agreements with its neighbouring countries on the delimitation of the continental shelf and the Exclusive Economic Zone, and, in this regard, India has even taken in the past a maritime boundary case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague by agreeing with Bangladesh to undergo arbitration.

The third point I would like to draw attention to is the Minister’s visit to Egypt the day before yesterday, where he met with his counterpart, Mr. Shoukry. As you know, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has regular contacts with his Egyptian counterpart, so this visit took place in this context.

Besides bilateral cooperation, where special reference was made to energy as well as to the telephone conversation between the Prime Minister Mr. Mitsotakis and the Egyptian President Mr. Sisi regarding the construction of the electric cable, the wider developments in the Middle East but also Libya were discussed. Both countries share the desire for stability in this country and make every effort so that the situation stabilises and elections are held as soon as possible.

The Egyptian Foreign Minister also briefed Mr. Dendias on developments in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia and Sudan. It was an interesting discussion, but what I would also like to underline is that even if we make openings to other areas, our wider region always remains our focus. It was particularly interesting that Mr. Shoukry gave the Minister a thorough briefing on his meeting with other Arab Foreign Ministers, his Israeli counterpart and the US Secretary of State, which had taken place a little earlier on the same day. They had started on Sunday night and the meeting continued on Monday morning.

If nothing else, this meeting between Israel, the United States and four Arab states marks a radical shift regarding the geostrategic environment in the wider region of the Middle East.

That’s all with my introductory remarks. Now allow me to turn to the Minister’s schedule, so that you realise why I made them. Well, next Monday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will meet here, in Athens, with his Dutch counterpart, Mr. Hoekstra.

On Tuesday morning, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus, Mr. Kasoulides, will arrive, with whom Mr. Dendias will have a short bilateral meeting.

He will then meet with his Israeli counterpart. Mr. Lapid is coming to Athens next Tuesday. And the Minister will have a bilateral meeting with him, as well.

And then, the three Ministers will hold a trilateral meeting followed by statements to the press. Actually, the schedule is still being formulated. I do not know the exact time the statements will take place. They will definitely be made in the afternoon, anyway.

On the same day, that is, on Tuesday, the US Under Secretary of State, Ms. Victoria Nuland, is also expected to arrive in Athens in the afternoon, with whom the Minister will also meet.

On Wednesday and Thursday, April 6 and 7, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dendias will travel to Brussels for the NATO Spring Ministerial Meeting, that is, the regular NATO meeting. The Minister attended the extraordinary NATO meeting on Ukraine two or three weeks ago. This one is a regular meeting.

There will be at least three working meetings and one of them will take place with the participation of NATO’s Asia and Pacific partners, namely Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Finland and Sweden, and of course the European Union.

So, now you realise the reason why I previously mentioned this region in my introductory remarks. And of course, Ukraine is expected to be discussed there, as well.

On Saturday, April 9, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is expected to participate in the Delphi Forum.

On Monday, April 11, Mr. Dendias will attend the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg.

And right after that, from Tuesday, April 12, until Friday, April 15, he will take a quite extensive tour in the Far East. He will start from Japan, then travel to Indonesia and finally to Vietnam.

That’s all regarding the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ schedule. Allow me now to tell you a few things about the Alternate Minister, Mr. Varvitsiotis’ schedule. Tomorrow, 31st of March, he will address the event “The war in Ukraine, a critical time for Europe”, that is being organised in the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

On April 4, he will also have a meeting with the Dutch Foreign Minister, Mr. Hoekstra. On Friday, April 7, he will participate in a panel at the Delphi Forum, together with the Italian State Secretary for European Affairs, Mr. Amendola, and the Austrian Minister for the EU, Ms.Edtstadler, whom he met some months ago in Athens.

Finally, on Tuesday, April 12, he will participate in the EU General Affairs Council in Luxembourg.

Now, regarding the Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Fragogiannis: Tomorrow, the Parliament votes on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ draft Law regarding the transformation of the Export Credit Insurance Organisation into Hellenic Export Credit Company SA, and the ratification of its statute.

On Wednesday, April 6, Mr. Fragogiannis will meet with the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, in charge of the Western Balkans, Mr. Escobar. Then, he will also participate in the Delphi Forum.

On April 12 and 13, Tuesday and Wednesday, he will visit Kosovo and on Friday, April 15, he will co-chair the 8th Greece-India Joint Interministerial Committee.

Mr. Katsaniotis, the Deputy Foreign Minister, is expected to tour Canada next week, where he will meet with Greek Diaspora associations. At the moment, I do not have more details, not even for the exact days of the trip.

It was a visit he had planned to make at the end of February, if I am not mistaken, but due to the well-known developments at the time, he postponed it for later. That’s all, in brief. I am at your disposal for some questions.

D. MANOLIS: Good morning from me too. Can you tell us about Tuesday’s meeting with Minister Kasoulides and Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs? Did you say that Ms. Nuland will also be attending?

A. PAPAIOANNOU: No, there will be a separate meeting.

D. MANOLIS: A separate meeting. What will its subject be and what should we expect?

A. PAPAIOANNOU: Well, first of all, there will be at least two bilateral meetings of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dendias, one with Mr. Kasoulides, first thing in the morning. Afterwards, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Lapid, will arrive and there will be a bilateral meeting. At these meetings, of course, there will be an exchange of views on the strategic cooperation with Israel. As regards Cyprus, the issues to be discussed are obvious, namely the close coordination regarding the Cyprus issue and also coordination within the European Union and so on.

At the meeting with Mr.Lapid, one of the issues will be, as I told you, the coordination on issues of strategic cooperation between the two countries; also, developments in the wider region in all areas, energy, the fight against terrorism. As you know, unfortunately there have already been three terrorist attacks carried out in Israel in the last few days, which of course we have condemned.

Beyond that we will see, there will be a broader discussion on developments in the Middle East, the Gulf region and North Africa. As I told you, Mr. Lapid was the host of the meeting with his US counterpart and four Arab Foreign Ministers, so this is also expected to be discussed.

As for the trilateral cooperation, the trilateral ministerial meeting, there have been several such trilateral meetings as you know. The last one, at least at the level of Foreign Ministers, took place in Jerusalem last August, if I am not mistaken. At the upcoming meeting the three Ministers will examine the cooperation between the three countries in all areas including, of course, energy – and I would like to emphasise this.

In addition, they will discuss developments in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region, of course in light of the radical changes in the geostrategic environment that are taking place, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Well, Ms. Kratsi, please.

CHR. KRATSI: Christina Kratsi from Alpha TV. Since the Israeli Minister will be here and he will see Ms. Nuland as well, is there any case, or rather is there any intention to raise the issue of the “resurrection” of the EastMed pipeline in the Mediterranean, since Easter is coming?

A. PAPAIOANNOU: Pardon me, Easter is coming, yes. Look, first of all, regarding the EastMed pipeline, as the Minister has said, the issue is of economic and not of geopolitical nature. And when you talk about resurrection, it sounds like the project is dead. I am not aware of anything like that, I have not seen any statement suggesting that this pipeline has been taken off the table. But I am telling you again, in the final analysis, its implementation will depend on economic considerations.

CHR. KRATSI: I just asked if the issue will be put on the table, whether it will be discussed as a possibility, due to developments.

A. PAPAIOANNOU: I have no knowledge of it at the moment, I do not know. Look, the meeting with Ms. Nuland will be a bilateral one. I want to emphasise this, these visits coincide. In other words, they will all take place on Tuesday, April 5, it just happened this way, let’s be clear on that.

Beyond that, it is expected that most of the discussion with Ms. Nuland will be devoted to the developments in Ukraine and Greece’s position in the framework of the North Atlantic Alliance, but also as a European country. I do not know the details of the meeting’s agenda yet. And to the developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, this is a sine qua non.

P. MICHOS: Good morning, the Republic of Turkey has taken a role in the talks between Ukraine and Russia. However, although it is a member of NATO and a candidate country for European Union membership, it does not align with the position of other European countries. How does Athens view Turkey’s stance on the one hand and the stance of the West on the other, which allows Turkey to act like that? Are there double standards applied? How do we comment on that, what is the view of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Thank you very much.

A. PAPAIOANNOU: It is not only a matter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; this has also been emphasised by the Prime Minister. Our position is that we call on all countries, our European partners, and in particular the candidates for accession to the EU, to align with the decisions of the European Union regarding the imposition of sanctions.

S. RISTOVSKA: Last week there was a working breakfast with North Macedonia in Brussels. Can you give us any details about this meeting? The second question is, I see that the Minister’s schedule is all packed until April 15 therefore, if he is to accompany the humanitarian aid to Ukraine, this can only happen after that date. There is no opening in his schedule. Thank you.

A. PAPAIOANNOU: Nature abhors a vacuum. As regards the schedule, we’ll see about that. There are certain things that are binding and cannot be changed. However, beyond that, there is always the possibility to make adjustments.

Besides, I was referring to the Minister’s schedule on weekdays. The Minister, as you know, works on weekdays and weekends. Well, we’ll see.
The key issue at the moment is that there must be the appropriate conditions to allow this mission to take place.

And the appropriate conditions are – and we have said it – on the one hand the Ukrainian side to facilitate us and, on the other hand, the Russian side not to create obstacles to us. Well, unfortunately, as I told you and as it became apparent yesterday, we are still very far from this scenario.

As for the time when we can be sure that this can be carried out, I honestly do not know. Allow me to add, of course, that we are also in contact with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which, if nothing else, has the greatest experience not only in Ukraine, but globally.

If there is one organisation that knows how to channel humanitarian aid to war zones for the last 150 years, it is the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Well, we are in contact with them, so we can find out when there will be a window of opportunity. The date problem, so to speak, is probably the least right now. So much for the second question.

Now, regarding the working breakfast hosted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dendias, for his counterpart from North Macedonia, Mr. Osmani, last week: it was an informal working breakfast held on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council. This was something the two Ministers had discussed in the past and Mr. Dendias had said that he would invite him to Brussels.

I will point out two things. One thing was, of course, that there was a mass participation of Foreign Ministers. If I am not mistaken, there were 17 or 18 European Union Foreign Ministers out of a total of 27; which is not usually the case, since in such informal working breakfasts barely six or seven participate.

So, this constituted an immediate success, in fact the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and Italy were present.

The High Representative, Mr. Borrell, and the competent Commissioner, Mr. Varhelyi, were also present. The other issue is, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasised, the support for the accession perspective of North Macedonia and, as I have repeatedly said, our long-standing request for the immediate start of the accession negotiations.

B. AGROLABOS: Thank you. Agrolabos, from “Efimerida ton Syntakton’ newspaper. I have one question and I would like a brief response. Regarding the humanitarian initiative, it was announced by President Macron that this is a trilateral initiative at the level of Foreign Ministers. What is the preparation that has been made? Is there any relevant engagement in this regard? And the second question is about energy. A proposal has been made by President Erdoğan to his Israeli counterpart. There is a relevant discussion and it seems that a meeting is also expected to take place at the level of Energy Ministers for the interconnection between Israel and Turkey with a land or a subsea gas pipeline. Is there any relevant view from our part on this? Thanks.

A. PAPAIOANNOU: I thank you very much. On the first issue, yes, there is coordination. In fact, the points of contact between the Greek and French Ministries of Foreign Affairs on the issue of humanitarian aid to Mariupol have been designated, which of course is an immediate priority for our countries.

So, discussions have started, but again, as I said before, our main concern at the moment, the main issue, is the situation on the ground, which, unfortunately, is tragic.

Now, as regards energy issues: my principle is not to comment on what two third countries are doing, in this case Israel and Turkey, or on the discussions they have.

The only thing I can do is to refer you, if you will allow me, to reports and in fact from an international news agency, with statements by the Israeli Minister of Energy, who said that many considerations have to be discussed regarding this matter. There are economic aspects that need to be taken into account, as well as geopolitical ones, although she did not mention it, but this is no secret. What is worth mentioning – it only takes one look at the map – is that if there is any prospect of a connection between Israel and Turkey, then the pipeline would have to pass through either territorial waters or the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus or Syria; therefore, it will happen only if there is a solution of the Cyprus issue and an agreement with Cyprus.

Well, thank you so much. Mr. Argyrakis, pardon me.

TH. ARGYRAKIS: Since you said that the situation in Mariupol is tragic, do the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Greek government as a whole have a clear picture at the moment of what is happening with the Diaspora Greeks in Mariupol and the wider region?

I mean, hundreds of thousands have fled their homes so far, others to eastern Ukraine, others to Russia, others to western Ukraine. Do we have any idea how many Greeks have left and are currently in camps, or with acquaintances, friends, etc. in Ukraine, Russia and in eastern Ukraine? Do we have any idea how many are dead or injured? – Obviously, to the extent that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can have a picture in the midst of the chaos that prevails there.

Have any contacts been made with the Russian side, which is receiving a huge number of refugees in southern Russia? Does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have a picture about this?

A. PAPAIOANNOU: Mr. Argyrakis, you answered your question yourself, pardon me for saying so. But you precisely said that the situation over there is what it is, so there is no need for me to add anything.

TH. ARGYRAKIS: And one last question, since you are also responsible for the reform at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Has the reform plan or part of the reform plan been undertaken by the private consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers?

A. PAPAIOANNOU: No. Look, just to be clear: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested, within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, Technical Assistance from the European Commission for the reform of the Ministry. In this context, the European Commission can choose for itself who will undertake this assistance. Well, beyond that, any question you have about who will do what, you may address it to the European Commission. It does not fall within my competence to answer it.

Thank you very much. Pardon me, yes.

TH. ARGYRAKIS: Is it true that PricewaterhouseCoopers has taken the job?

A. PAPAIOANNOU: Please, Mr. Argyrakis, please. Mr. Balodimas who has not taken the floor yet.

TH. BALODIMAS: I would like to ask something else. Last Friday, on the National Day [March 25], the British Ministry of Defence released a video that showed the countries that have opposed the unacceptable Russian invasion. It illustrated the outlines of these countries.

What was completely strange and dangerous is that the Republic of Cyprus was illustrated without the occupied territories, even without the territory of the British bases. That is, Britain appears not to recognize, so to speak, Cypriot sovereignty over the island. Was there any reaction from the Greek side, are you thinking of doing something? Because this goes a bit too far, right?

A. PAPAIOANNOU: Indeed, I’ve read about this in a media report, and the British Ministry of Defence on the one hand immediately corrected the map and on the other hand apologised for this huge mistake. There has been a relevant statement by the British Ministry of Defence.

Well, thank you very much, hopefully we will meet again in two weeks. I wish you well.