At the 5th meeting of the Supreme Council of Greece-Turkey Cooperation, which took place in Athens on Thursday, December 7, and led to the signing of 15 agreements of the Positive Agenda, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Extraversion, Kostas Fragogiannis.

According to Mr. Fragogianni, the 5th meeting of the Supreme Cooperation Council of Greece-Turkey “once again gathered all the spotlights and will occupy the news for quite some time”, and he emphasized the reasons why it is of particular importance.

As he points out:

a) The visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Athens, after 6 years, reflects the climate of cooperation and dialogue that prevails in Greek-Turkish relations at the moment.
b) Maintaining this climate is in everyone’s interest, as the challenges we face today at the regional and global level require collaborations and convergences.
c) Turkey is a country of considerable strength in our historically and culturally uneasy neighborhood.
d) As Greece, we consistently seek open channels of communication with the neighboring country, while maintaining clear positions on our national issues and without any inclination to back down on our sovereign rights.

“With these data, we proceeded to sign 15 agreements, memoranda of understanding and joint declarations, which are part of the now well-known initiative of the Positive Agenda. I remind you that the Positive Agenda aims to resolve issues of an economic and trade nature and facilitate bilateral economic cooperation,” he added.

He also referred to one of the agreements – which, as he pointed out – had an obvious economic as well as social footprint. “It is the joint declaration co-signed by EGNATIA ODOS S.A. with the General Directorate of Motorways of Turkey for the construction of the second bridge (Kipoi-Ypsala) on the Greek-Turkish border in Evros. In this context, the Greek side undertakes to upgrade the building facilities of the border station in Kipi. With the completion of the reconstruction projects of the existing facilities both at the level of buildings and at the level of equipment – the service time of passers-by will be drastically reduced. In the next stage, the construction of a new, modern land border station in Kastanies, in a new location outside the residential network, is planned, so that those passing through the European route 80 can be served, especially those traveling on the Istanbul-Sofia highway. The added value of these projects is obvious, not only for the facilitation of travel, tourist and professional, but also for the overall strengthening of the economic activity of the wider region”, he said.

“The memorandums of cooperation between the investment promotion agencies (EG-Invest in TR) and the export credit agencies (ECG-Eximbak) of the two countries, as well as the memorandum of cooperation between the Greek Ministry of Development and the Turkish Ministry of Industry & Technology for the development of networking structures for small and medium enterprises”, added Mr. Fragogiannis.

Finally, he pointed out “the value of the memorandum signed by the national research and technology bodies of the two countries, which provides for the announcement of a joint competition in cutting-edge and high-tech sectors, as well as the initiative to hold an online competition for students (Hackathon). Their importance lies in the cultivation of a climate of cooperation, mutual understanding and trust between the youth of Greece and Turkey” and concluded by saying that “our unbreakable geographical ties with Turkey are to our advantage to go hand in hand with a calm and fruitful neighborhood”.