During his working visit to Mozambique, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick made the following statement to the country's news media:
“The Greek government could not turn a blind eye and provided symbolic humanitarian aid, to the best of its ability, to the government of Mozambique, as the country suffered destruction on a biblical scale due to the two cyclones that ravaged it over the course of 45 days, resulting in casualties in the hundreds, over 2 million homeless and nearly half a million schoolchildren with no classrooms — not to mention the losses in the agricultural and livestock farming sector. On top of all this, a state of emergency was declared in northern Mozambique due to a cholera outbreak.
Today, here in Maputo, I delivered, on behalf of the Greek government, a letter from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Giorgos Katrougalos, which refers to our humanitarian aid. I delivered the letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs Manuela Luca Santos, and to the Deputy Minister of State Administration and Civil Service, Mr Albano Macie. Also present was the General Consul to Maputo, Mr Gerasimos Marketos, who visited the affected areas with a UN delegation”.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs added that he agreed over the telephone with the Greek Defence Minister, Mr Evangelos Apostolakis, for the Ministry of Defence to collect medicines and add them to the humanitarian aid to be shipped to Mozambique by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Santos, expressed her warm thanks to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, stressing the following: “We highly appreciate the fact that an envoy of Greece visited our homeland. The amount or volume of humanitarian aid does not matter to us. What matters is that the country of Socrates and Aristotle is here, to support us in these dramatic, painful times, and we are not unmoved by this fact — on the contrary, we will always remember it. This decency was shown from the very first moment by the members of the Greek community in Mozambique, as well as our friend Gerasimos, the General Consul of this brotherly country from the European Union".
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs then met with the UN Representative in Mozambique, Mr Marco Corsi, and the Ambassador of the EU in Mozambique, Mr Antonio Sánchez, who fully briefed him on the dramatic situation in the affected areas. It was announced that a Ministerial meeting will be held in Maputo on 30 May, to be attended by Ministers of EU Member States, on the reconstruction of Northern Mozambique. Finally, Mr Quick met with the President of the World Bank, David Malpass, on his first international visit in his new capacity for the purpose of providing financial aid.
May 5, 2019