Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ statement following his meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Anniken Huitfeldt (Oslo, 16.02.2022)

[Greeting in Norwegian]

It is such a great pleasure to meet you in Oslo. And I thank you also for making me feel so much at home. And thank you for appreciating that today is an opportunity to enhance our relations and also to recall that our relations are based on our common principles.

My presence here today, along with Deputy Foreign Minister Fragogiannis, signals that our bilateral economic relations are very important to us. And thank you for appreciating that and thank you for creating this opening for us, to work and try to attract Norwegian investment.

And also, maritime cooperation; we both have big maritime fleets, big interest in shipping. And I have to say it is very important that we are together in that.

Also, what we could do is to work on further cooperation in  “green projects”. You are very much an environmentally-friendly country and so are we. So, the Government of Prime Minister Mitsotakis is also a green government. And, we would very much love to work with you on the protection of the sea.

Also, I would like to praise Norway’s role in upholding International Law, as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2021-2022. I hope we will not be needing your help, but we are glad that you are there.

As you know, Greece also aspires to become a non-permanent member for the period 2025-26.

Also, we have been Allies in NATO for 70 years now.

I have to say openly that we will fully abide by our commitments in NATO.

As far as Ukraine is concerned, I briefed you that I am going to Moscow to meet our colleague Sergey Lavrov on Friday.

We call for de-escalation. I think this is what should happen.

We have an additional interest in Ukraine, apart from being a country that believes in sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries of the world; we have an important Greek Community right next to Mariupol, 150,000 people, right on the two sides of the line of contact. And we very much care about their well-being there.

I am going to talk to Sergey Lavrov about that as well.

Also, thank you for providing me with know-how on how things work in this region. Your deep knowledge of Russia and your contacts with Russia over the year are, if you’ll allow me to say, a very useful handbook for us in understanding how one could work with Russia.

Also, I had the opportunity to brief you on the challenges we are facing in the Aegean.

I told you that what we are facing are violations of our airspace on an almost daily basis, from the part of Turkey.

I have to say, a situation in which Turkish officials again on a daily basis have entered into a “barrage” of illegal and provocative statements against us. Statements that have nothing to do with International Law. Statements that have nothing to do with International Law of the Sea.

I am very sorry to observe that Turkey is choosing this very moment, when there is a deep need for NATO solidarity and there is a deep need to show to everyone that we hold our principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, we uphold those principles. It is at this very moment that Turkey chooses to use words which are a provocation against Greece’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Having said that, I have to say that this kind of statements brings into question Turkey’s commitment to NATO; it brings into a big question Turkey’s commitment to fundamental principles of the UN Charter.

Yet again, Greece is always ready to engage in a constructive dialogue with Turkey, under one provision: this dialogue has to take place under the rules of International Law and International Law of the Sea. It cannot be a dialogue without rules.

Again, thank you so much for your kind hospitality. It is such a great pleasure to be here today in Oslo and if you allow me I would welcome the chance to host you in Athens.