Following his participation in the EU Foreign Affairs Council and the EU-ASEAN ministerial meeting (21/01/2019), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick also participated in the EU-African Union ministerial meeting (22/01/2019) on strengthening relations between the European Union and the African Union, aiming at the development of African states, an issue related to migration flows originating from that continent.
During his intervention at the said meeting, the largest ever held at the headquarters of the EU in Brussels, with the participation of 80 Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Mr Quick, among other things, stressed the following:
“Greece is held in high regard by the peoples of African states, whether those bordering the Mediterranean in the north, or those in sub-Saharan Africa. You see, we never colonised them.
Wherever Greeks settled, since the early twentieth century, they did so in order to work, to build a future, with love and respect for their neighbours.
With the invaluable assistance of the Greek community abroad, Greece has greatly upgraded its political, diplomatic and economic relations with many states of the African continent over the past two years, a fact these states appreciate.
We are both a member of the European Union and an important gateway for African relations with our European family.
In turn, all member states of the African Union are part of the global family of the UN, without overlooking the participation of most states in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a fact that we must note for numerous reasons which need not be explained at present.
I want to assure you that, by definition, the Greek government wishes to participate in all initiatives that concern relations between the European Union and the African Union. This is why we would like to congratulate the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Mrs Federica Mogherini, for this ministerial meeting following up on the EU-AU summit held in November 2017 in Abidjan.
Greece has co-signed the EU's plan to support actions primarily focusing on African youth, aiming at creating jobs, providing them with education, and achieving harmonisation with the demands of the digital age. By helping young people and their families remain in their homelands, we are also greatly contributing towards reducing migration flows originating from those countries.
I must also underline the need for the women of Africa to take their rightful place at the employment, social and educational level.
Finally, I am in a position to announce that the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue supporting Greek business missions on the African continent, and particularly in rapidly developing states, because, regardless of whether this contributes to the extroversion of our own economy, it also helps create jobs employing the local populace, as I was saying earlier”.
January 23, 2019