By Gifts Antoniou

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ hourly meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday in Paris had no statements, but he seems to have substance. “All the issues were raised” was the highlighting of government sources shortly after its completion. At a meeting, however, that the content of the debate between the two leaders would not be leaked beyond those elements that the two sides would like to make public.

The “all issues raised” in Athens is the happy way to say that there was a discussion on the issue of the METEOR air -air missiles, which Turkey is interested in. The issue was raised by Mr Mitsotakis, but the Greek side is fully aware that it is not completely at the discretion of France to decide or not on this particular sale. The rockets are produced by a multinational consortium and it seems that Britain’s position on this issue is important. However, it is important for Athens that the French side is aware of our country’s “sensitivity” to this issue. The manipulation of the Maximus Mansion, however, and the particularly low tones are evidence of the disintegration of the issue and a different approach to the one that was first made by the Ministry of Defense with the call of the Ambassador to France for the displeasure.

After all, the issue that has recently arisen with regard to Meteor is a small aspect of a wide range of bilateral relations, with a strong parameter of defense cooperation between Greece and France. All of this context of bilateral relations was discussed yesterday, under the new data arising from developments on the Middle East front and the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The meeting was an additional opportunity to discuss the issue of European Defense as a whole, where it was agreed that increased fiscal flexibility to state -state member states needed to be given. It is, after all, a proposal that Mr Mitsotakis has submitted to the public debate to strengthen European defense.

In addition, issues related to European competitiveness were discussed, in the new prism of the new data after the launch of Donald Trump’s second term in the presidency of the United States. And, of course, the issues related to global competition for artificial intelligence and the position of Europe in this race.

After all, the meeting took place on the sidelines of the Synod for the artificial intelligence held in Paris. Indeed, in the meeting, Mr Mitsotakis said that Greece is involved as a co -sharing of European developments in this critical sector. The prime minister had meetings yesterday with executives of companies at the forefront of the development of artificial intelligence applications. The session’s work will be completed today.