Dear Secretary General, welcome to Athens.
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you today. This is our third meeting within six months, following the meetings we had in Riyadh and then in New York. And the frequency of our contacts surely indicates that Greece’s relations with the Gulf countries are deepening significantly and constantly.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was in Riyadh a few days ago, where he met with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He also met with Greek officers operating the Patriot defence system deployed by Greece to protect facilities and civilians in Saudi Arabia.
I was in Oman a week ago. In the coming days I will be visiting the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and hopefully, in early 2022, Kuwait.
Last year, we signed an Agreement on Foreign Policy and Defence Cooperation with the United Arab Emirates that includes a mutual assistance clause.
Last April we signed together a bilateral Memorandum of Cooperation. Greece also organized the Philia Forum last February, in which three Gulf countries participated: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
All these initiatives are placed under a common umbrella leading to my country’s effort to open new horizons and become a bridge between the Gulf and Europe.
The Abraham Accords and the Al-Ula Agreement create new prospects and I do not hide the fact that we are very proud, because we had foreseen these prospects before the signing of these Agreements.
We also strive and wish for the deepening of relations between the Gulf Cooperation Council – the GCC – and the European Union, including the convening of a Ministerial Meeting of the two Organizations within the next year.
The deepening of these relations is also a high priority for us, which is something I emphasized to the European Foreign Ministers at the recent Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg.
At the same time, Greece seeks to contribute to stability and prosperity in our common region. That was the main topic of our talks.
We looked at all the challenges in our region, in Afghanistan, in Yemen, Iran’s nuclear program, the developments in the Middle East Peace process.
We, Greece, hope for the coexistence of two states in peace and security, as provided for in the relevant resolutions of the Security Council. I would like to note that the European Union has repeatedly called for an end to settlement activity, stressing that this undermines efforts for a two-state solution.
I also had the opportunity, Your Excellency, to inform you about the ongoing Turkish provocative conduct, not only in our narrowly defined region.
Provocations against Greece, provocations against Cyprus, the casus belli, the threat of war against Greece; violations of sovereignty and sovereign rights on a daily basis; invasion of a large number of countries. Turkey has a military presence in five different countries that it should by no means have.
We discussed the issue of Libya thoroughly. Foreign forces and mercenaries must leave Libya. Libya should move promptly to holding elections on scheduled date.
And I want to be honest with you. It gives me no satisfaction to repeat the long, in any case, list of Turkish provocations. I would rather talk about a Turkey as being a country that embraces International Law, that embraces the values we discussed earlier; a country on a modernizing European path. And I should like to say in all honesty that I believe this is the will of a large part of the Turkish society.
I would have liked the opportunity to talk about a Turkey that would not be a constant threat to Greece, that would not have issued a threat of war against Greece, that would not threaten the wider region.
But in order to be able to talk about such Turkey, this Turkey must first emerge. The Turkey we currently see across the Aegean, is not the Turkey we would like it to be. Its conduct is not the conduct we would like it to have.
Unfortunately, the reality is all that we experience on a daily basis. But Greece -I want to be clear on that- always demonstrates and will continue to demonstrate a mature attitude; an attitude in accordance with International Law and the International Law of the Sea, and with understanding of the internal political difficulties of the neighbouring country.
Concluding, I would like to emphasize that our meeting today constitutes a very important opportunity, a step towards consolidating security and prosperity in our region. I think we are going through an exceptional phase. The Action Plan that the GCC and Greece will agree on will be our guide in this common course, as is International Law at all times.
We will continue this effort together with our friends and partners. You know very well, Your Excellency, that we consider you to be among our close dear friends.
Thank you very much for your presence here today.