Merci Aïssata, Your Excellence,
It is such a great pleasure, such a great honour to be in Dakar, in the Senegal, today.
And I will start, as being a football lover, by congratulating Senegal’s national football team for winning the African Nations’ Cup. That was a very impressive result.
But, also if you allow me to say, it is not just football. It shows how Senegal is getting into the central stage not just for Africa, but also for the world.
And that is the reason why we have made the decision, and thank you for acknowledging, to open our Embassy here in Dakar in the Senegal.
Also, it is by no choice coincidence that many international organizations have their seat here in Senegal.
You are holding the Presidency of the African Union, which is very important.
Moreover, there was a very successful EU-Africa Summit in which your ideas where heard. And I have to say that for Greece is important that Africa’s views are being heard in Europe.
We do not know better. We can provide facility, we can provide help, we can provide investment capital, we can provide assistance, but we do not know Africa better than the people of Africa. So, I came here to listen and to understand. Not to speak and to preach.
And thank you so much for what you have told me during our meetings, for the very educative process in which these meetings were held.
We discussed many important things. You touched upon them. We have signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Political consultations. But also, I have to say that I am pleased that we agreed to cooperate on all sorts of things.
First of all, on issues of naval cooperation. Both our military people, but also our merchant marine can cooperate and I have told you that it will be a great pleasure for Greece to provide scholarships in our naval academies either for the merchant navy or the military navy for cadets from Senegal.
Also, we can cooperate in education, trade, tourism. There is a lot of know-how that we can provide you with. And also, we can discuss migration and we can find common solutions.
I am very happy that I will visit the Pasteur Institute later today, which will have a cooperation with the Greek Pasteur Institute and I am happy that the Pasteur Institute here in the Senegal will start producing vaccines. It is very important that vaccines are being offered to the African countries and to the African people. Health is a global good and all people are entitled to it.
We have tried and we have donated millions of vaccines, but we are so happy that this is a step forward: production of vaccines here in Africa.
Also, let me be frank, Greece is not a big country. We have a long history but we are not a big country. But we present ourselves in foreign policy in other countries as bearer of principles. We believe in International Law and International Law of the Sea. UNCLOS has been signed by Senegal, and Senegal is also a member of the club of friends of UNCLOS, so we cooperate on that. But for us, International Law is the holy gospel of our foreign policy.
Furthermore, we believe in national sovereignty, in sovereign rights to be protected. We believe generally in the respect of International Law. And we will be happy to cooperate with African countries on this level.
Thank you so much for this extremely interesting visit. But thank you for providing me also with the opportunity to be received by President Macky Sall later on the day. He is the successor of President Léopold Senghor, who is a very well-known household name in our country. He was a Philhellene and I think he would have been extremely happy that I am here today opening an Embassy in his homeland.
Excellence,
Dear Aïssata,
I am waiting to see you in Athens. I would be very happy if you come the soonest. I will be very proud to hand to President Sall, later on, the invitation of President Sakellaropoulou and of Prime Minister Mitsotakis to visit Greece.
Thank you so much for your kind hospitality and the wonderful experience for me and my team to be here in Dakar today.