Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos met at the Foreign Ministry today with Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, who is heading the Russian delegation to the 8th Greek-Russian Joint Interministerial Committee (JIC) on Economic, Industrial, Technological and Scientific cooperation.
During the meeting, which took place in a warm climate, the two Ministers reaffirmed the strong, historical bonds of friendship linking the two peoples, and discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral economic cooperation and EU-Russian relations in the light of both the traditional ties linking the two countries and the upcoming Greek EU Presidency in the first half of 2014.
Mr. Avramopoulos expressed his satisfaction and the ongoing rise in numbers of Russian tourists visiting Greece. In this framework, he briefed Mr. Sokolov on the pilot programme for facilitating the issuing of entry visas to third-country nationals visiting Greek islands. Mr. Sokolov thanked Mr. Avramopoulos for Greece’s stance on the issue of liberalizing the EU visa regime with the Russian Federation.
The meeting was also attended by Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas, who co-chaired today’s Greek-Russian JIC at the Foreign Ministry.
April 12, 2013