I will start with Ukraine; the shadow that this conflict casts in Europe and of course in this room. We are going through a bleak period, if I may say so.
Dear colleagues, as I said yesterday, Greece’s foreign policy is always guided by and based on a set of fundamental principles.
Humanitarian law, the inviolability of territorial integrity, compliance with the International Organizations in which it participates, NATO, the European Union.
We proceed on the basis of these principles. At the humanitarian level, we can only be horrified by the scenes broadcast from Ukraine.
Mothers, children, the shelling of maternity hospitals The Russian invasion has claimed many victims, victims also among Diaspora Greeks.
On this occasion, I would like to warmly thank you. To warmly thank all the wings of the Parliament for the feelings you expressed for the Greek diplomats and specifically for our Consul General in Mariupol, who, as we speak, is on his way back home.
It is of no consequence to tell you his exact whereabouts. He was supposed to drive to Zaporizhzhia as I told you yesterday. However, Zaporizhzhia was shelled this morning. So, a change of plan was required, but in any case, we hope that by tomorrow night at the latest he will be within EU borders.
But allow me to expand a little bit on Ukraine. First of all, the Prime Minister, Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, briefed the Parliament on the political issue, and I think on the basis of that debate, there was a broader understanding of the principles represented by Greek foreign policy, which I have previously outlined.
However, various issues have been raised in the room, on which I would like us to reach an understanding, precisely because these issues are quite serious.
As to whether the government tried to mitigate the consequences of the matter, I will not dwell on what has been written from time to time -spare me from referring to them- such as the reports that I asked Mr. Lavrov to intervene in the differences between Greece and Turkey or any other kind of empty talk.
I think they do not deserve any particular comment. However, regarding the context of the warnings to both Greek citizens and the Greek Diaspora, I would like to ask you to pay attention to the clear announcements issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The first one was issued on February 11, with which we advised Greeks travelling to Ukraine to keep in direct contact with our diplomatic missions.
On the 14th, we issued a second announcement in which we told Greeks not to travel to Ukraine, we advised the Greeks who were in Ukraine to leave the country and get in contact with our authorities. I remind you that my trip to Moscow took place following these announcements. It took place on February 18.
On the 22nd we issued a third announcement following a meeting also attended by Deputy Minister, Mr. Katsaniotis, in which we urged in the strongest terms Greeks to leave Ukraine
Beyond that, I honestly tell you, if you take also into account that I visited Mariupol and talked to Dmitry Kuleba, my Ukrainian counterpart with whom I have a good personal relationship, but also the fact that I visited Moscow and saw Mr. Lavrov, I do not know what more the Greek government could do to help the Greek Diaspora, the Greek citizens who were there.
By now, we have carried out five evacuation operations; we hope that we will be able to carry out a sixth one, “Nostos 6”. If anyone thought that there was something more that could have been done, then, I think, he should at least have said it.
Unless one envisions, -because there were various things heard not in this room but outside, which verge on the hilarious- unless one looks back to 1919 when Konstantinos Nider, in command of the I Army Corps, arrived in Odessa.
It is an extremely difficult time, a tragic moment. The very least we all have to do is to be absolute serious.
I will also refer to what was heard in the room, regarding the wider foreign policy before I come to the issue of the United Arab Emirates and the agreement that we are discussing today and which our rapporteur, Mr. Andreas Nikolakopoulos, adequately addressed, as he did yesterday.
Dear colleagues, the country is pursuing in fact a broader policy, Mr. Voutsis, you are right. Not beyond its principles, but broader. But let me tell you – the human planet has shrunk through technology and globalization. It goes without saying that the Greece of 1974, 1975, 1976 did not have the same needs as the Greece of 2020, 2021, 2022. Humanity has changed.
If you want, our traditional interlocutors have also changed. Where did the European project stand in the 70s, in the 80s? Where did Turkey? Russia did not exist; it was still the Soviet Union. So how do you ask Greek foreign policy to remain the same as it was in the 1980s? In fact, this would be like burying our head in the sand.
The question that needs to be asked and answered by every government, every nation, every people, is how to respond to challenges. And of course, it was rightly said in the room, that Greece does not pursue a policy in contradistinction to Turkey’s, we have a policy of our own, with our own national priorities, with our own national interests, with our own principles, taking of course full account of the existing Turkish threat. However, we are not defined by that, we do not pursue an anti-Turkish policy.
And indeed, Mr. Vitsas, we all hope that the time will come when Turkey abandons its irrational claims, when differences will be resolved and we will live together, and you are right that then there could be an explosive momentum for stability, security, in the economy, in all fields, following such an understanding.
Of course, I’m afraid it will not be easy to see this achieved in our lifetime, but I will not stop for that to materialize, as does the government and as I think we all do. But Greece needs to respond to this new environment, to this wider environment.
You will allow me to say to you, if you take a look at the Ministry’s website, yesterday morning I spoke with the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, in the afternoon with the Israeli Foreign Minister, the day after tomorrow I will travel to New York to meet with the United Nations Secretary-General to discuss Ukraine and Libya as well as the issues of the Eastern Mediterranean. On Monday evening I will travel to India to meet with the Minister of External Affairs of India.
Of course, all this would have seemed outlandish in the 1980s, but this is the foreign policy that the current situation demands. And surely there was no strategic horizon for our country in the “Persian Gulf”, as Mr. Loverdos previously said, as we used to call it back then. It did not exist, it was beyond the horizon of Greek foreign policy back then, but now it needs to be, because both opportunities and threats emanate from the wider region.
And I am very proud of this Agreement we have before us.
And you were right to note, Mr. Loverdos -I tend to agree with you quite often lately, and this makes me worry- you were right to note that it is not usual to come to a defensive Agreement with a country that is perhaps one of the most powerful military forces in the wider Arab world.
We cannot allow ourselves to move past this as if it were a matter of course. It is not every day that defensive agreements are signed. And as I told you in the plenary session, I do not associate it with Turkey, because it should not be associated with Turkey.
I asked you, however to take into account that during the major crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean, four Emirati UAE F-16 Block 60 aircraft with 130 personnel were stationed at the Chania airport.
And I also ask you not to yield to the temptation of interpreting everything that the country is doing through the lens of a quasi anti-Turkish stance.
There is no need for this. We are not opposed to our friends and allies talking with Turkey. We are interested in them talking with Turkey, in concluding agreements with Turkey, because in this way Turkey hears what needs to be heard and if Turkey changes course and joins the group of the countries that endorse International Law, that endorse the International Law of the Sea and the United Nations Charter, countries which do not threaten other states with the use of force, then the better for Turkey, the better for all of us.
It is positive that Turkey hears all this. And I never made a secret of the fact, when speaking in this room, that the foreign policy of the Mitsotakis government is a policy of intersecting cycles that I have analysed for you. The second cycle is the one of North Africa and the wider region, which combines the exceptional relations with Israel with the exceptional relations with very many countries of the Arab world.
For instance, we never enjoyed the kind of relations with Egypt we are enjoying now, never. We never enjoyed the kind of relations with Saudi Arabia we are enjoying now, never.
These are not insignificant matters and, of course, this does not mean that we accept the entirety of the domestic legal framework of these countries – because this was mentioned, especially for Saudi Arabia.
As I have already told you, our foreign policy will expand beyond India; to the archipelagic countries which share the same views with us; to sub-Saharan Africa, where I have already visited six countries, the last one being Senegal, a visit which was also criticized.
At the same time when the Greek airplane was descending, President Erdoğan’s airplane was taking off from the same airport. And I am telling you this, not in order to put it in contradistinction with Turkey – I repeat, this is wrong – but because one has to realize that for Greece to be able to survive and achieve great things, it needs to develop and expand its potential.
Historically, we have always been a cosmopolitan, open society, always trading at the boundaries of our known world in each of our historical stages.
And, of course, I heard criticism about a Greek ship, of Greek ownership, that was loaded with Russian oil. Sanctions do not include a ban on the export of energy, if I remember correctly. And of course, this is not a government that will put Greek ship-owners in a defensive position.
However, dear colleagues, I want to be clear. We have to agree on the need for a new comprehensive architecture. We need to stipulate it. We cannot afford to limit ourselves within the narrow geographical region of the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula. We need to grow.
Bosnia and Herzegovina constitutes a challenge for Greece, not in the sense of narrow self interest, but as a broader security issue I would say. We have an obligation towards our country, towards the values and principles we represent, to expand our horizons.
We can achieve this, without delusions of grandeur, without pretending to be something we are not, without labouring under illusions of geopolitical expansion, but defending our principles, our interests and our economic presence, our exports and investment in our country, which are necessary for survival in the 21st century.
Concluding, I would like to honestly say that I consider it to be a great achievement of the Parliament and Greek society that agreements such as this one are voted for by an overwhelming majority.
This means that to a great extent we have moved forward and matured as a nation, which is necessary to survive. I should remind you that all national divisions – I am always saying this, so that it is recorded in the minutes – all major national divisions were caused by foreign policy issues.
Therefore, it is a major asset for the people, for the nation, for our homeland the fact that we can see together the challenges of the present and the future, stand united, establish a coherent national front and move forward.
In this way, Greece will be even more powerful in the future.
Thank you so much.