Highlights from Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis’s interview on “ANT1” radio with journalists N. Dimaras and N. Vafeiadis:
· “Greece was from the very outset in a very good position, as to readiness, to react to the situation developing in Libya. Last weekend, a marathon of contacts was carried out by the leadership of the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister himself on the Libya issue. Let me add, on the humanitarian aid issue, that the Greek side has been on alert from the very first days of the crisis, with the Defense General Staff and a ship that is ready at any moment to transport 50 tons of humanitarian aid. We haven’t gone ahead with that yet because we need to have a clearer picture of the situation. It is dangerous to say you are sending humanitarian aid if you don’t know whose hands it is going to fall into. Greece’s effectiveness in mobilizing fast to repatriate citizens is also well known.”
· “What we are trying to strengthen is, first, Greece’s diplomatic position, which can be very special, and also – and it is important that we say this – we want to have a major role in the reconstruction, development and stabilization efforts in Libya the ‘day after’.”
· “We are moving on two levels with regard to the Libya issue:
1. The first is the political/diplomatic level, and that is why we are focusing on the efforts toward a diplomatic solution. I remind you of George Papandreou’s proposal for a center for developing and promoting democratic institutions in the wider region; an extremely important proposal that needs to be looked at and implemented.
2. The second is that we are trying to have a major presence through economic diplomacy. I remind you that in the cases of Libya and Egypt, the Greek businesspersons active there assured us – right after the turmoil began in Libya – that they not only had no intention of leaving, but in fact intend to invest and persist even more. The investments stayed their, and that is important for the leaderships of the countries. We intend to visit Egypt, initially, precisely to support Greek enterprises there. Our message is that in difficult times, Greece and Greek enterprises stayed there and held on to their investments. This creates an obligation of the part of these countries. This is the general line we will pursue in the Arab countries: politically friendly, economically aggressive.”
April 6, 2011