“Good evening.
Today, I had the opportunity to meet with my British counterpart, Dominic Raab, and with the Under-Secretary of State for European Neighbourhood and the Americas, Wendy Morton.
Following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, bilateral meetings are imperative. The last visit of a Greek Minister to the UK took place in 2013.
We are linked to Great Britain by many things. First of all, common values. Greece is the birthplace of Democracy. The United Kingdom is the birthplace of parliamentary democracy.
Greece and Great Britain have been traditional allies in all of the conflicts of the past 200 years.
And as we are celebrating the bicentennial of the Modern Greek State, I reminded my interlocutors of some British figures who championed Greek independence and prosperity. George Canning, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill.
I told them that no Greek can forget Lord Byron; there is no Greek who does not know Admiral Codrington’s contribution to Greek independence.
Britain left the European Union, but it remains a considerable and important power.
Both our countries exercise foreign policy based on International Law. Both our countries honour their contractual obligations deriving from international law. Whether these concern treaties signed a few years ago or ones signed a century ago. We look forward to our neighbours’ doing the same.
At the same time, Greece and Great Britain are linked by the Greek community in Britain, the British community in Greece, and the millions of British visitors Greece welcomes every year.
And there are also the priceless monuments of our cultural heritage, which are housed in the British Museum, and a framework obviously has to be formulated for their return to Greece.
The main subject of my talks today was the creation of a bilateral cooperation framework between the two countries in the post-Brexit era.
And of course this framework must be compatible with our obligations as a member state of the European Union, but it must also exploit on the huge capital of our bilateral prospects.
The goal is ambitious. To create a strategic partnership between Greece and the United Kingdom.
I also had the opportunity to brief my interlocutors in depth on the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
We expect the United Kingdom to contribute – as a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council, and with its major capabilities – to the creation in the Eastern Mediterranean of a framework for implementation of the rules of International Law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). After all, the United Kingdom is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Of course, given that both Greece and Great Britain are guarantor powers, we talked in depth about the Cyprus problem and the upcoming informal meeting, which, it appears, will take place next month.
In this context, I reiterated Greece’s firm position, which Great Britain shares. That the solution must be based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation in line with the Resolutions of the UN Security Council, and it must also be compatible with European Law.
The bicentennial of the Modern Greek State is a brilliant opportunity for an ambitious new beginning in our bilateral relations with the United Kingdom.”
February 2, 2021