Dear Secretary,
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today.
Following the meeting we had in Washington DC last May.
For us, for my Prime Minister, myself, the Government, for the Greek people and the Greek society, if I may say so, it is an honour to have you in Athens.
We don’t forget, Sir, that an ancestor of yours, Thomas Lindall Winthrop was chairman of the Philhellenic Committee in Boston during the Greek war of Independence.
So, if you will allow me, I would like to offer you a copy of a document from that time.
It is a letter from the first Governor of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, who happened to come from my home island of Corfu.
This is a copy of the letter addressed to the New York Committee of supporters of the Greek Revolution, thanking them for what they have done for us 200 years ago.
Now, as you very well know, you have a huge experience, the relations between our two countries – Greece and the USA- are at an all-time high.
We were honoured by your proposal to host the “2024 Our Ocean Conference”, which we gladly accepted.
Again, I quote you, according to Greek mythology, Oceanus was a Titan, the son of Heaven and Earth, “Ουρανός” (Uranus) and “Γη” (Gaea).
And because of this tradition, we believe that most things derive from the Ocean.
In ancient Greek, “ocean” meant the “sea”; it didn’t have the exact meaning of the ocean today.
So, everything is coming from the sea and that is why we have to protect it.
So, we are very much looking forward to giving an extended meaning to this “Our Ocean Conference” together.
Also, we are going to use that in our neighbourhood and to ask everybody to try to abide by the rules of the protection of the maritime environment.
And I am referring specifically to UNCLOS; chapter 12 of UNCLOS clearly has the rules of the game.
The UN Convention, which all countries should ratify.
When “Our Ocean Conference” took place in Chile, Chile ratified it. So, can we be calling all of our neighbours to ratify this? We should and we can protect the maritime environment.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to cooperate on this very important agenda, having to do not just with the environment in an abstract form, but with the everyday life of every citizen of Greece and of every citizen of the world.
Thank you so much for being here today.