Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ statement to journalists following his meeting with the Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Helga Maria Schmid (Vienna, 08.03.2022)

I had an extensive discussion with the OSCE Secretary General, Helga Schmid, focusing primarily on issues concerning Mariupol and the safety of the Greek Consul who is currently hosted at the OSCE premises in Mariupol. We will do our outmost to bring the Greek Consul safe, back to Greece.

I would like to seize this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the Greek diplomats who, at the risk of their own lives, tried to evacuate Greek citizens and Diaspora Greeks from Ukraine at this extremely difficult time.

Beyond that, we made an overview of the extremely difficult and unpleasant situation. The Russian invasion has caused enormous problems. And we discussed ways to address some of their aspects.

JOURNALIST: Minister, yesterday you had a very interesting meeting with your British counterpart and discussed all the latest developments in Ukraine. Did you take any decisions? Are there any specific actions taken by Athens and London?

N. DENDIAS: The United Kingdom, despite being outside the European Union, remains a very important geopolitical player. That was the fourth time I had met with a British Foreign Secretary, in this case with Liz Truss, in the nearly three years I have been serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs. This time we met under the shadow of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and discussed the huge security issues that this invasion has created both for our countries and for world peace and security. We discussed the Western Balkans, the Sahel region, North Africa, Libya, the Middle East. We also talked about how humanity can overcome this major misfortune that the Russian invasion has brought about.