By Dora Antoniou

The developments in the wider region of the Middle East lend increased interest and importance to the tripartite meeting of Greece – Egypt – the Republic of Cyprus, which will take place today in Cairo with the participation of the prime minister Kyriakou Mitsotakisof the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisiand the President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulidis. The prolonged instability and unpredictability of developments make the tripartite an important axis of stability and security, which is recognized by the international actor. The recent developments in Syria make the regional environment even more complex and in the tripartite it is expected to be one of the issues that will be raised, with the Greek side underlining the dimension of the need to preserve the territorial integrity of Syria. The Prime Minister will repeat Greece’s position on the need for one inclusive process with the participation of all Syrians and it will emit the message that the new Syrian leadership must demonstrate in practice that it respects International Law and that the rights of all religious and ethnic minorities are protected.

The current developments, of course, also include the discussion about possible Turkish-Syrian agreement to define maritime zones. Egypt’s influence in the Middle East is particularly important and therefore the timing of the tripartite takes on greater value. At the same time, Greece is steadily promoting the strengthening of Egypt’s strategic cooperation with the EU, which, among other things, is also decisive for immigration. It is recalled that the last visit of Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Cairo took place in March 2024, in the context of a joint visit with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and European leaders for the signing of the EU-Egypt Strategic and Partnership Agreement, for which Greece took the lead by emphasizing the strategic importance of Egypt’s stability for Europe, as well as the importance of Cairo in containing migration flows to European countries.

The collaboration Athens – Cairo – Nicosia in the economic sector, in the field of energy and energy security – a sector dominated by the Greece-Egypt GREGY electrical interconnection project, which will make our country Egypt’s energy bridge with Europe, but also in investments remain firmly in the foreground . The Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is expected to have a private meeting with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Athens considers particularly important the consolidation of tripartite forms of cooperation, which form a field of continuous dialogue with the important countries of the region and can function as a factor of stability. It is no coincidence that in his Epiphany message Mr. Mitsotakis proposed the element of stability. underlining that “Greece is a beacon of stability in an unstable world and a country which, despite the difficulties, is making progress in a more general environment of stagnation.”