Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ statements following his meeting with his counterparts of Israel Yair Lapid and of Cyprus Ioannis Kasoulides (Athens, 05.04.2022)

Dear Yair, Dear Ioannis,

It is such a great pleasure to welcome both of you in Athens today.

Mr. Kasoulides is well acquainted with Athens in his long and illustrious political career.

And Yair, it is such a great pleasure to see you in your first official visit to Athens in your current capacity.

But I am told that you have visited us privately many times before and I hope many times in the future as well.

Our meeting comes after the trilateral Summit held in Jerusalem last December, the 8th trilateral summit in six years, which speaks for itself.

Today we examined ways of expanding cooperation among our countries in many fields, energy, transport, civil protection, as well as economy, tourism, trade, you name it, it’s there.

Our strategic partnership rests on solid foundations as we share a common vision for peace, stability and prosperity for our region.

We have a common reading of the regional challenges, their origins and the actors involved.

This is why we believe this partnership has such an important dynamic.

And I have to say that I am so happy we have been able to agree to additional cooperation on civil protection and also on measures to protect our tourist industries.

And I have to say we draw confidence that our partnership is not affected by other regional developments or relations with third countries.

We discussed about the expansion of our trilateral cooperation so as to include other states, that share this vision of our region and of our future.

And we underlined the importance of enhancing the 3+1 mechanism between us three and the United States.

And I’d say that we had the pleasure that Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland just paid us a visit during our lunch.

We welcome the results of the recent Ministerial meeting in the Negev desert, hosted by Israel.

With the participation of Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

That was an extremely important meeting, which you have called showing your capacity to profit from the new architecture of the region and allow me please to congratulate you on that dear Yair.

Big part of our discussion today was focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And I had the opportunity to brief my colleagues on Mariupol, a city with a huge Greek community where it is clear that war crimes have been committed, and also my recent visit to Odessa two days ago.

Odessa that was just hit by Russian cruise missiles just a few hours before my arrival there.

And I also took the opportunity to thank Yair warmly and to thank the Ambassador of Israel in Athens Yossi Amrani for the help we received from Israel and from the Ambassador during our evacuation efforts of Greek citizens and the Greek community in Mariupol.

You helped us host our people in a synagogue in Uman, dear Yair and that is something that we will not forget. Thank you so much. Thank you.

We had also the opportunity to underline that revisionism, violations of basic International Law principles such as the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of states are condemnable.

The swift response by the International Community, sent a clear signal that such practices are not acceptable in the 21st Century.

And this for us is clearly the end of tolerance for revisionism in the 21st Century. And I have to say that does not apply jut to Russia.
Countries envisioning such revisionism should take note.

We addressed energy cooperation, also in light of the EU’s energy diversification strategy.

Diversifying gas supplies has become a top priority. So, we discussed natural gas, including the East Med pipeline and we discussed electricity interconnectivity, including the Euro- Asia interconnector.

And also this was a great opportunity to update each other on regional issues, starting with the Cyprus issue, which is the result of a foreign invasion of a country in our continent, almost five decades ago.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which we condemn in the strongest terms, is a reminder of another open wound in Europe which should not be forgotten.

On the contrary, all parties have to make the necessary efforts in order to ensure a just, viable and permanent solution to the Cyprus issue, on the basis of the relevant Security Council Resolutions.

This is an opportunity to resolve the Cyprus issue, which should not be missed.

Also, we had the opportunity to address the Iran-JCPOA discussions, as well as the Palestinian issue.

In this vein I reiterated that Greece condemns unequivocally all acts of terrorism.

Unfortunately, Israel has suffered a series of terrorist acts in recent days.

And they have caused the loss of innocent lives.

We stand in full solidarity with our Israeli friends.

And we offered you dear Yair and to the Israeli people our condolences.

I also underlined that Greece is ready to support any efforts aiming at the revival of the Middle East Peace Process.

We stand ready to play a constructive role in any possible contacts between Israeli and Palestinian officials.
I also raised the worrying developments in the Christian quarter of the Old city of Jerusalem.

Following the illegal occupation of the Little Petra hotel, belonging to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, by members of a settler group.

Protecting its rights, its Holy Shrines, Foundations and property, as well as preserving the status quo of the Greek Patriarchate is a top priority for us.

We fear that this issue, unless addressed, could deteriorate and lead to escalation, ahead of Passover, Easter and Eid al Fitr.

We fully respect the independence of the Israeli judicial system.

And remain confident that the Israeli government will take all necessary measures to address this issue.

In order this to ensure the preservation of the pluralistic and multi-confessional character of the old City of Jerusalem.

Dear friends, the list of fields of cooperation is inexhaustible.

But inexhaustible are the challenges we commonly face.

Also, I feel that with our strategic partnership these challenges can be addressed. Thank you so much and dear Yair you have the floor. Thank you for your presence here today.