If I remember well, we have met in Berlin. It was last year. And thank you for visiting us within the COVID restrictions. This is a great opportunity to meet and discuss with you, and also give you the right signal that we are getting out of this sort of COVID crisis. And there is a bubble within the EU in which we can communicate. So, this is also the right signal.
I have to tell you that for us we will never forget your party – you represent a historic party – nobody can ever forget really that. And we, Greeks, can never forget the help that Helmut Schmidt and Willy Brandt gave to Konstantinos Karamanlis in our accession process.
And I have to say openly that if it was not for Helmut Schmidt and his understanding, Greece would not have become a member of the EU in 1981. So we hold very dearly the memory of our gratitude to you for that period.
Having said that, of course, every coin has two sides. I cannot but express our profound disappointment on the role of the SPD on the draft motions for the arms embargo on Turkey. As you know, both Prime Minister Mitsotakis and myself have numerous times spoken to almost everybody in Germany about the necessity to keep the balance in the Aegean.
And this is something that for us is a source of considerable concern. But we can discuss this in more detail.
