“Revisionism has no place in the modern era and must be condemned wherever it comes from”, underlined the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, in his statements after his meeting with the Maltese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ian Borg, in Athens.

During the meeting, as Mr. Dendias pointed out, they discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the inadmissibility of attempting to change borders by force and the common obligation to support Ukraine at all levels, as well as International Law and International Law of the Sea, UNCLOS.

But as Mr. Dendias underlined, “the EU must also pay attention to the Mediterranean. Ukraine is something extremely important, but the EU must have a 360-degree policy.” “The Mediterranean is extremely important, the northern coast of Africa should not be ignored in any way. If we ignore it, big problems will be created for Europe in many areas: immigration, terrorism. The southern borders of Europe also need our attention,” he pointed out.

It was further discussed “that the crisis in Sudan, in addition to the extremely unpleasant effects it has on the population and European citizens, could be an opportunity to intensify our efforts to create a permanent EU force deployment scheme, especially for the release of EU citizens”.

“I criticized in Brussels and during our discussion in the Council the inability of the EU to organize a joint operation to free our citizens from Sudan” and added that Greece is doing everything it can to free its own citizens and any others he can.

He also recalled that yesterday he received at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Romanian and Finnish citizens who were brought to Athens by a Greek aircraft. As the Minister of Foreign Affairs mentioned, the visit of his Maltese counterpart to Athens reflects the strong will of both sides to further strengthen Greek-Malta relations.

He also thanked him for his presence yesterday, at the event of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the presentation of Greece’s candidacy for the position of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the period 2025-26.

The presence of the Maltese minister is of particular importance, as Malta is your country and is currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (2023-24).

The countries have already developed close cooperation at the UN, which will deepen even more if Greece is elected to the Security Council. They also referred to facing common challenges to protect our common values ​​and the principles of the United Nations Charter which both countries serve with utmost loyalty.

Prospects for further strengthening our bilateral cooperation in various fields were also discussed. From this cooperation, as Mr. Dendias pointed out, Greece and Malta have to reap benefits, in areas such as shipping and tourism. The two ministers also signed a Cultural Cooperation Protocol, through which they will be able to promote their relations in a large number of fields, archaeology, university research and entertainment.

Regional issues such as Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean, but also broader problems were discussed. Mr. Dendias mentioned that I asked for Malta’s help for the 9th “Our Ocean” Conference that Greece will host in 2024, which Malta has hosted in 2017 and thanked him for his willingness to help with expertise.

Mr. Dendias noted that he feels particularly closely connected to Malta and its citizens, as he comes from Corfu, which has many architectural elements in common with Valletta. “Also at least 3,500 Maltese people live in Corfu, many of them are my friends, they have always voted for me overwhelmingly and I am very grateful for that,” he concluded.