Statements by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, G. Katrougalos, following the proceedings of the 1st Trilateral Ministerial Meeting between Greece, Cyprus and Armenia (Nicosia, 04 June 2019)

G. KATROUGALOS: I am also very pleased with this first Ministerial Meeting between Greece, Cyprus and Armenia. I would like to thank, first of all, Nikos for the exemplary hospitality, and both Nikos and Zohrab for the very fruitful discussion that we had.

Our three countries are very like-minded, peace-loving countries and believe that international law and respect for multilateralism form the basis of international relations. And, of course, we share a long history together. We envisage the improvement of both economic and political relations.

The next step is going to be the Trilateral Summit among the leaders of our countries and, as it has already been said by Nikos, we intend to help, as much as we can, Armenia in its European perspectives. EU-Armenia relations have been among the major topics of discussion. We promised to our Armenian counterpart that we will expend all efforts for the fastest possible positive outcome regarding the European aspirations and, as far as we are concerned, we are going to proceed as fast as possible after the elections to the ratification of the agreement between the EU and Armenia. We have also discussed cooperation in the context of international organizations.

I have reconfirmed our strong support and solidarity to Cyprus vis-a-vis the recent provocations and violations of International Law by Turkey and I have assured my counterpart of our support in the next meetings of the Council of the European Union.

In conclusion, I would like once again to thank my friends and counterparts, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulidis, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, for the very constructive meeting today and I am looking forward to even more productive meetings to take place.