I. KASOULIDES: It is a particular pleasure to welcome to Cyprus the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Greek government, my friend Evangelos Venizelos.
On the afternoon of his appointment to the Foreign Ministry, I called him, and the first thing he remembered was the relationship that was created by the then government spokespersons of Greece and Cyprus, who established close collaboration that served as an example and extended afterwards into all the sectors of the governments of Greece and Cyprus.
I think we can feel certain that such cooperation will continue now, as well. As you know, the result of that close cooperation, and thanks in particular to the support of Greece, led to Cyprus’s accession to the European Union. And it points up how much can be achieved when there is cooperation of this kind.
Today we started to look at a large agenda of issues that we will continue with during my visit to Athens on 15 July.
We looked at the Cyprus issue, with proposals concerning the issue of Famagusta, the exclusive economic zone. We looked at Turkish issues, and we also looked a little more generally at regional issues, and our talks will continue during our next meeting.
At this time we must all feel confident that we will confront the issue with the full support and assistance of Greece, because we, too, want to be supporters on all the problems concerning Hellenism in general. Thank you.
E. VENIZELOS: We are in Cyprus today, in Nicosia, for three reasons:
First, because it is not a formal, but a substantial national obligation of each Foreign Minister of the Hellenic Republic to start their official visits and international meetings with the Republic of Cyprus.
The second reason is that we have to talk to each other – the foreign ministers, as well as the President of the Republic of Cyprus and the heads of the Cypriot political parties – about where our major national issue, the Cyprus issue, stands as a pending international issue of the violation of international law and order, invasion and occupation. Because we have to seek a just, viable and functional solution within the framework of the UN resolutions, and we need to create, each time, the necessary momentum, we need to impart the necessary impetus so that we can draw near to and, in the end, achieve this solution.
There is also the fact that Cyprus is currently going through a critical phase economically. Cypriot Hellenism is undergoing sacrifices, pressure. This makes us feel complete solidarity, identifying with you, because there is no doubt that on a pan-European level, Greece was and is, unfortunately, the laboratory for the implementation of methods to confront the fiscal, financial, developmental and social crisis the whole Eurozone – the whole of the European Union – is going through.
There are also very, very important international developments in our wider region. We have the pending matter of Syria, the new developments in Egypt. We have constant shifts in regional power interrelations. So we had to talk about all of this, in combination with the major foreign policy chapter that is energy diplomacy, following the decision taken on the TAP, and, as such, the upgrading of Greece’s position on the energy map.
The third reason is my close personal relationship with Ioannis Kasoulides. A profound, unshakable friendship. A relationship of trust, which has been functioning for 22 or 23 years now, since, as the Minister said, we were both government spokespersons and established a very close, sincere, automatic cooperation, which we now reaffirmed on the level of the Foreign Ministers of the two countries. On EU and Eurozone issues, as well as on the major foreign policy issues, beyond the field of European integration.
Today we talked about all the issues, and I am pleased because I convey here the greetings of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, as well as of the whole Greek government and the parliamentary majority – a greeting of honor, love and active support.
This is our strategy. This is the national strategy. Support, harmonization, automation and communication, so that we can have a strategic framework in which to move; a framework that we want to put into operation and get the optimum results, not just for the national issue, but also for the peace, stability and prosperity of our countries and the wider region. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: The same question for both Ministers. What do you hope for from the opening of the negotiations in October, and whether you think that the discovery of natural gas deposits, in combination with the economic crisis, is an opportunity to accelerate the solution of the Cyprus problem so that there can be a stable environment on the island, which also means attraction of investments.
I. KASOULIDES: If you will allow me to give the first answer. The whole effort is certainly aimed at seeking a solution to the Cyprus problem. That is what we should all expect if we mean that we are going their with that objective – and we mean it. It remains to be seen whether the other side means it too.
But I want it to be clear that the problems of the economy, the process of the solution of the Cyprus problem, and the natural gas process are three parallel and independent paths, each one strengthening the other.
E. VENIZELOS: There is no doubt that the political solution of the Cyprus problem will strengthen, to an impressive degree, the potential for economic growth and prosperity for the Cypriot people as a whole and for both communities, and it will function as a catalyst – a positive catalyst – for the wider region.
So we, too, as the Hellenic Republic, have a very great and direct interest in all of this evolving smoothly, as provided for by international law, and as entailed by the modern perception of the functioning of economic relations in the energy sector. Because these relations are by their nature international relations, inter-state relations.
JOURNALIST: Mr. Minister. you mentioned a strategic framework within which we should move. Within this strategic framework, what role might the energy sector play, including with regard to the pipeline you mentioned, and Cyprus’s proposals, and the developments we are seeing in the Middle East?
E. VENIZELOS: As I had the opportunity to say just a few minutes ago, in reality the developments in the energy sector, the exploration for, discovery and use of natural resources, the terminals, the pipelines – they change the geographical state of affairs. When we change the geographical state of affairs, in reality we are changing the material foundation of geostrategic interrelations. From this point of view, we need to underscore the upgraded role of both the Republic of Cyprus and Greece.
JOURNALIST: The Minister mentioned energy diplomacy. Where do we stand with the trilateral cooperation between Israel, Cyprus and Greece?
I. KASOULIDES: First of all I want to say that we want to point up the identity of Cyprus’s foreign policy in the Eastern Mediterranean as the policy that will offer added value to the common foreign policy of the European Union. Energy, natural gas, is the vehicle of this policy.
The trilateral cooperation is a cooperation between states that have common objectives and a desire to work together. We consider it neither a front against Turkey, nor any kind of special alliance, beyond the significance that such kinds of agreements have.
E. VENIZELOS: I’ll continue in the same spirit as Mr. Kasoulides and say that the Mediterranean, and the Eastern Mediterranean in particular, is our unified space. So it is logical that in the unified space of the Eastern Mediterranean, all the states – first and foremost the member states of the European Union, but also all the states of the region, including those that do not belong to the European continent or, more specifically, the European Union – have an interest in and an obligation regarding cooperation. And this is what we are promoting. We are promoting this not against others, but towards common goals. And the common goal is for the Mediterranean basin to be a basin of coexistence, peace, culture, growth. And now we have the opportunities to add new growth dimensions, due to the energy findings.
As a follow-up to that observation, I must tell you that we are now preparing for the Greek Presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2014. And we will continue the initiatives taken by the Cypriot EU Presidency with regard to comprehensive maritime policies, because maritime policy will be one of the horizontal axes of the priorities of the Greek Presidency.
Thank you very much.
July 5, 2013