E. VENIZELOS: It is with great pleasure that I am today welcoming to the Foreign Ministry the Secretary General of the Arab League, Mr. Elaraby, a distinguished diplomat, a distinguished expert in international affairs, who is visiting our country on the occasion of the International Conference being held by the Economist on the relations between the European Union and the Arab world.
One of the main subjects of our talks with the Secretary General was the preparations for the Ministerial Meeting of the member states of the EU – the 28 Foreign Ministers of the European Union – with the Foreign Ministers of the member states of the Arab League, on 10 and 11 June, here in Athens.
This is a very major event that is fully aligned with the priorities of the Hellenic Presidency.
You know how strong and deep our ties are with the Arab world on the bilateral level, so we are working within the European Union with the aim of deepening and promoting the relations between Europe and the Arab world.
We were very pleased with the Europe-Africa Summit, and now we believe that the June Ministerial is a great opportunity to reaffirm the political framework governing our relations, to discuss the open fronts that exist. Unfortunately, there are many crises, and of course we will be able to talk about the economic and commercial dimension of our cooperation, which is always very, very important.
I thank the Secretary General for being here, for the talks we had and for his extremely positive contribution to the preparations for the June Ministerial.
N. ELARABY: Thank you very much, Mr Minister. It is a great pleasure for me to be with you here and to discuss so many issues, which are important for Europe and important for the Arab world.
I think I need not repeat what I said this morning about the very old connections, historic connections between Greece and the Arab world. I come from Egypt; I think we all in Egypt have some Greek blood and we were always working with Greeks, and I was happy this morning, when Prince Bin Talal, the Saudi Prince was speaking also and emphasizing the connection between Greece and the Arab world.
I think this is a very important meeting that we are going to have on the 10th and 11th of next month. There will be the 28 Foreign Ministers from the EU, there will be the Foreign Ministers of the Arab world, and we are going to discuss how we are going to proceed in our relations.
I think we both need each other, and I mentioned this morning that we have to rethink our relationship. The Meeting in June will be the third meeting. There was one in Malta in 2008, another one in the premises of the Arab League in Cairo in 2012, and this is the third Meeting, so relationships have to mature, have to enter many new areas, and the objective is always how to cooperate better and how to align ourselves in projects that will benefit the two sides.
I think we have a responsibility to the peoples in Europe and the peoples of our world, the other side of the Mediterranean, that the cooperation will go forward in a very positive way and that the results will be felt everywhere.
On the political field, I have to say on behalf of the League of Arab States that the relationship with Greece is a modern kind of relationship that we find support, we find advice and we find interest in what is going on in our world and our problems, whether it is the Palestine problem or whether [...], we like to consult always with Greece, and Greece is one of the countries that are always committed to improve matters in a very positive way, and we are always grateful for that.
May 5, 2014