“With strategic alliances and defense equipment, we make Greece the strongest player in the South-Eastern Mediterranean, which can create security conditions and defend stability in the region”, pointed out the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis speaking on the “Today” program of SKAI and to Dimitris Oikonomou and Akis Pavlopoulos.

The Deputy Minister made special reference to the strategic relationship between Greece and the United States of America. “We are growing in extremely fertile soil,” he said, adding that the stability of our relationship with the US has given us a strategic advantage. “Greece is taking advantage of the vacuum left by Mr. Erdogan’s retreats and is becoming the strong bulwark of the Western alliance in the Southeast Mediterranean,” he noted. He also highlighted the investments of large American multinational companies that choose Greece for strategic capital placement, but also the increased tourist flows of Americans to our country.

Mr. Varvitsiotis also referred to Greece’s strategic cooperation with Egypt, which has greatly upgraded our country, but also to the strategic connection with France, which, as he recalled, has been called into question by the opposition, which did not vote for the relevant agreement.

Responding to a related question about Greece’s preparedness in case it is threatened, the Deputy Minister stated that in addition to the alliances that are a deterrent force, “we should defend our national sovereignty, be ready, capable, equipped, determined and united to defend our national independence”.

Regarding Greek-Turkish relations after the devastating earthquakes, Mr. Varvitsiotis underlined that we are not complacent about the climate that has been created. “The tones and solidarity shown by the two peoples during this time may be lowered to open a window of opportunity for dialogue, but it must be done in a sincere mood and in a framework that guarantees that we will not go backwards. Because, if Turkey soon returns to its previous aggressive rhetoric, we will tear down all the bridges and there will be no possibility and no hope of rapprochement,” he said.

Mr. Varvitsiotis also reminded that today is an anniversary day, as it marks one year since the start of the war in Ukraine “which changed a lot of geopolitical facts and mainly shattered the illusions that we live in a world of eternal peace and cooperation”. And after speaking about the Greek victims of Mariupol, he noted that “we owe morally, historically, but also with the logic that we are defending International Law and the borders to stand by the people of Ukraine and the fight they are fighting”.

Mr. Deputy Minister commented that the Greeks will be called upon in the next elections to decide how the country will proceed with stability, seriousness, responsibility and armor right in this unstable international environment.