The Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met in the afternoon at the Maximos Palace with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Yair Lapid, who is visiting Greece to participate in the Tripartite Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Israel and Cyprus.
Developments in Ukraine and the economic and geopolitical implications of the Russian invasion of the two countries and the Southeastern Mediterranean region were discussed during the meeting.
They also exchanged views on international developments and their impact on the wider region, on the progress of tripartite cooperation schemes, as well as on the strengthening of Greece’s political and economic relations with Israel.
Energy security issues were also addressed. The two sides agreed on the need for diversification of energy sources and cooperation for the exploitation of the energy resources of the Eastern Mediterranean.
From the Greek side, the meeting was attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Themistoklis Demiris, the Ambassador of Greece to Israel Kyriakos Loukakis, the Director of the Diplomatic Office of the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Theocharis Lalakos and the Deputy Government Representative, Aristotle Peloni.
At the beginning of the meeting Mr. Mitsotakis and Mr. Lapid had the following dialogue (unofficial translation from English):
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: It is my great pleasure to welcome you back to Athens. These very close contacts between the Greek and Israeli governments have become a habit. I am sure that your conversations with Nikos Dendias were constructive. We are going through a period of significant geopolitical turmoil and in these times, it is always important to reaffirm traditional friendships and to know who our allies are. Our relationship is getting stronger and stronger on many fronts and that makes me very happy.
Of course there are always new opportunities to explore further possibilities, especially in terms of energy cooperation. As we all strive to diversify our sources in order to move away from Russian oil and gas, I believe that the Eastern Mediterranean is becoming even more important. Therefore, all interconnection projects in the Eastern Mediterranean, whether via pipelines, LNG or electricity interconnections, should be largely under our microscope.
We have worked hard in this direction and maybe this is an opportunity to promote some of the projects we have discussed in the past.
So welcome. It is my pleasure to see you again in Athens.
Yair Lapid: It’s my pleasure to be here. It is not the first time I am in Greece, but it is the first time with this position. And I’m glad to be here and visit some places I like again and some people I appreciate.
As you said, we meet in turbulent times. It was also important for me to come here. Everyone knows – it is no secret – that the relationship between Israel and Turkey has improved. So it was important for me to come here and say: listen, this is by no means to the detriment of our relations with Greece, which are so close. And this alliance we have is extremely important to us. You will be informed about everything and we will cooperate in this, as we do in other issues. And we will have further discussions on how to improve our bilateral relationship.
Mention the energy sector. You are right. We need to diversify energy sources. We need to find other ways to supply Europe to meet its heating and electricity needs. We will also participate in the process and we will achieve it. I see no choice but to work together, continuing the close coordination we already have, the close coordination we have on security, something equally important in this turbulent world.
We need to “tighten the ropes” a little more. We need to talk further to make our region, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, safer. Israel has recently suffered some terrorist attacks and we must ensure that our people are safe. Today, we have the tripartite meeting with Cyprus. The discussion with Giannis Kasoulidis was very informative and satisfactory. We also talked about JCPOA. I have emphasized that Iran is not just a nuclear threat. It is a threat. Iran is Hezbollah, Iran is Hamas, Iran is Islamic Jihad. Iran is the spread of terror around the world. I know you know that too. The security services contact us about the issues that concern us.
Of course, we want to develop both trade and trade relations. Tourism has recovered, which is great for both Greece and Israel. We will work for the next meeting in the 3 + 1 cooperation scheme that we want to have with the USA. I know that you want to promote this form of cooperation as much as we do.
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