J. KERRY: I’m very pleased to welcome Greek Foreign Minister Venizelos here to Washington. We have met but we have not had a chance to be able to get together like this, and it’s my pleasure to welcome him here.
I want to congratulate Greece on assuming the EU presidency, and we look forward very much to working with them in that role, but also in continuing the path towards economic recovery. We know that it has been very, very difficult. Tough decisions had to be made. It is never easy politically. Those choices were made, and I think it is improving. And step by step, we want to continue to not only work on that, but on our superb cooperation with respect to counterterrorism, the Balkans, the Middle East. There are a host of issues where we share common interests.
Mr. Minister, thank you.
E. VENIZELOS: John, thank you very much for this kind invitation. This is a great opportunity for me to discuss directly with you, a few days after the official opening of the rotating presidency of Greece in the European Union, of the Council of the European Union. This presidency, historically speaking, the fifth after the Greek accession to the European family, is a great opportunity for Greece to show the face of an ordinary European country, of a country beyond the crisis.
Without doubt, the main Greek national problem is the crisis, and the national reconstruction after this very tough experience of the recession and of the unemployment.
But in the field of the foreign and security policy, Greece is always a factor for stability for our area, for the Western Balkan, for the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. And on this basis we serve the same values, the same views, and we have the possibility to organize our further cooperation as friends and allies. Thank you very much indeed for this opportunity.
J. KERRY: Thank you very, very much. Thank you.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Venizelos’ statements following his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (Washington, 17 January 2014)
E. VENIZELOS: Secretary of State John Kerry and I had the opportunity to talk in depth about all the major international, bilateral and European issues. This invitation for me to visit Washington, just a few days after the opening of the Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the EU, was a wonderful opportunity for us to put forward the profile of an ordinary Greece: not the Greece of the crisis, but Greece as an institutionally equal member of the European Union, which it represents as the Presidency.
We talked about our Presidency’s priorities, we talked about issues of Greek-U.S. interest in all sectors, and particularly in the sector of trade cooperation, border protection, and even cooperation in the fight against terrorism. We are allies, and we show this on all the major and difficult issues.
We also talked about our wider region of the Western Balkans, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Southern Neighbourhood. We discussed our neighbouring countries’ European perspective, which we support, provided they meet the prerequisites.
We talked about the new situation that exists in Turkey, about Greek-Turkish relations, about the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean. And naturally we discussed the major pending issue of Cyprus, which must be resolved justly and viably, within the framework of the resolutions of the Security Council and the European acquis, based on a single legal personality, a single sovereignty, and a single citizenship. Any solution will have to be accepted by the people of Cyprus, by the two communities – by the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities – via a referendum.
We also talked about the major pending issues. We support John Kerry’s initiative in the Middle East, naturally, and we are available to help as much and however we can on all the issues concerning the Geneva II conference on Syria. We really want the situation to be stabilized, because we are very close to this turbulent region of the Middle East and North Africa.
Naturally, we also talked about the economy. I briefed him on the basic content of the talks I had with Secretary Lew. The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury showed great interest in the Greek economy, and he urged me to focus, as Deputy Prime Minister and a former Finance Minister, on the major issues: recognition of the Greek people’s sacrifices, promotion of the economic reforms, our decision that additional fiscal measures are neither necessary nor feasible, and mainly the need for the sustainability of the Greek debt to be confirmed, which is also linked to the stability of a Greek banking system that is being accepted as strong internationally among the 13 major, systemic European banks.
So my two morning meetings, with Mr. Lew and Mr. Kerry, focused on matters of substance, and I am truly pleased because the talks with Mr. Kerry came at the end, when I had already talked about the economy with Mr. Lew and about all the EU Presidency issues with the two chairmen: the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Menendez, and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Royce.
January 17, 2014