The Foreign Ministers of Greece and Russia, Nikos Dendias and Sergey Lavrov, will have an exchange of views on international and regional issues at their meeting tomorrow, according to an extensive statement by the Russian Foreign Minister on Greek-Russian relations.
“Particular attention will be paid to Russia’s proposals for security guarantees in Europe and the situation around Ukraine. Also on the agenda is the settlement of the Cyprus problem, the state of affairs in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa, the Balkans and the Transcaucasia. “Our countries ‘cooperation in multilateral fora will be analyzed, primarily in the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the BSEC,” said the Russian Foreign Minister, noting that “Moscow and Athens’ approaches to key issues ‘continue’. . “Our states are in favor of resolving conflicts exclusively through political-diplomatic means, with a strict adherence to the rules of international law.”
This is the fifth live meeting between Foreign Ministers N. Dendia and Lavrov since 2019, with the most recent one at the Russian resort of Sochi in the Mediterranean on May 24, 2021. Since then, the two ministers have had three telephone conversations. talks (August 9, November 8, 2021 and January 12, 2022), while at the end of January 2021 in Athens and at the beginning of November 2021 in Moscow, political consultations were held at the level of Deputy Foreign Ministers.
During the meeting of the two ministers, the implementation of the agreements reached during the talks of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on December 8, 2021, and the head of the Russian government Mikhail Misustin during the recent telephone conversation on December 22 will also be discussed. 2021. Among the priority issues are “the trade-investment sector, energy, transport, tourism and ensuring the epidemiological security of the citizens of the two countries”, says the Russian Foreign Minister.
As the two governments have agreed, this year will continue the implementation of the Year of Greek-Russian History, organized on the initiative of Putin and K. Mitsotakis as a symbolic reminder “of the 200 years since the beginning of the national liberation struggle. of the Greeks, a decisive contribution to the success of which Russia played “. The Russian Foreign Ministry lists a series of cultural and historical events aimed at highlighting “the bright pages of our common history”: , the article on the granting of autonomy status by the Ottoman government in Greece. Russia was the first state to recognize Greek independence. On 5/17 September 1828, the Greek by origin, diplomatic envoy of Russia, MN Voulgaris, delivered the letter of recommendation of his credentials to the first Governor of Greece (1828-1831) and former head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire (1816 -1822) Ioannis Kapodistrias. This event marked the establishment of Greek-Russian diplomatic relations, which are already 194 years old.
Referring to the volume of bilateral trade, the Russian Foreign Minister notes the steady upward trend following the fall of the initial period of the pandemic. “Based on the results of 2021, the volume of trade increased compared to 2020 by 67.1% and reached 4.5 billion US dollars, a record size that exceeds the pre-pandemic of 2019, by 8.5% . Russian exports increased by 70.1% to 4.2 billion US dollars, imports from Greece by 34.1% to 298.5 million US dollars. The amount of direct Greek investments in Russia will reach a total of around mid-2021, 30 million US dollars, while the Russian investments in Greece will reach 646 million US dollars. “The implementation of private Russian investments in large projects in the field of construction, trade and agricultural economy continues,” the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry states. It is also underlined that “Russia is a reliable exporter of energy sources in Greece, it covers more than 40% of its needs for natural gas. In 2021, Russian gas exports reached 3.3 billion cubic meters, an increase of 9.3% compared to 2020. Positive dynamics are recorded for the second consecutive year: the indicators of 2020 were higher than the volume of gas sent in Greece in 2019, by 25.6%. An additional agreement was signed in the contract valid until 2026 between Gazprom Export LLC and the Greek gas company DEPA, regarding the mutually beneficial conditions for further gas exports “.
The announcement of the Russian Foreign Minister also emphasizes the reopening of the Joint Interministerial Committee for economic, industrial and scientific-technical cooperation and the holding of its 13th meeting at the end of November 2021 in Moscow, with the next one scheduled to take place this year in Greece. The cooperation in the field of extinguishing the summer forest fires in Greece is highlighted and it is pointed out that “Russia is ready to provide the necessary assistance to our partners in the field of crisis management from now on”.
“The working visit of the Greek Foreign Minister to the Russian Federation will contribute to the further development of cooperation between our countries, both bilaterally and in international organizations,” the Russian Foreign Minister concluded in his statement on Greek-Russian relations.
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