Ladies and gentlemen MPs, the debate on the 2021 budget is taking place during exceptionally adverse circumstances. The pandemic has left a considerable footprint around the globe. Despite the unprecedented efforts taking place, our country is paying a heavy toll. More than three and a half thousand of our fellow citizens, our fellow people, friends, relatives will not be spending the Christmas holidays with us.
Despite our overwhelming sadness, Greece is fighting to stand tall. In hospitals, at the workplace, even at home, complying with all the measures.
We all hope this tribulation is nearing its end. Through its new political approach, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is endeavouring to contribute to the recovery effort.
Together with Mr Kostas Fragogiannis, the competent Deputy Minister, we have incorporated actions to promote openness and regional and international economic cooperation into the goals of the central service of the Ministry and of our diplomatic missions abroad.
An arduous effort to attract investments is taking place in a competitive environment, achieving clear results that are well known to you all.
In the context of digital transformation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is radically transforming the consular services being offered. Together with Deputy Minister Vlasis, we are introducing digital tools that are already being implemented by our Consular Missions in London and New York on a trial basis.
They are scheduled to expand to all our Missions within the coming year, marking a new era for the services offered by Greek Consular authorities.
Ladies and gentlemen MPs, I will now focus on the hard core of foreign policy. As you are well aware, over the past months we concluded agreements with Italy and Egypt to delimit our maritime zones.
We also recently agreed with Albania to refer the matter to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, following the expansion of our territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, in accordance with the provisions of UNCLOS.
We thus resolved matters that had been pending for decades, and reversed the Turkish narrative of Greece supposedly being the spoiled child of Europe and holding maximalist views.
The Mitsotakis government's foreign policy was developed on the basis of a clear model of a strategy of intersecting circles, which also cross the long-standing axes of our foreign policy, i.e. the Cyprus issue and the Greek-Turkish dispute.
With respect to the European Union, a key area of activity and a long-standing priority, please allow me to refer to the matter and recent developments shortly.
As regards our immediate neighbourhood, the Balkans, we promote and support the European prospects of the Western Balkans on the basis of the Thessaloniki initiative and the relevant conditionality.
We are creating new opportunities and prospects, placing emphasis on connectivity and the defence sector.
A new architecture is being forged — and I hope you are noticing this — in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the Gulf countries, all the way to India. We are expanding our bilateral and trilateral relations, as well as the contractual framework in critical areas such as defence and the economy with countries such as Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.
I must also underline the signing of a strategic partnership and bilateral agreement in the area of foreign policy and defence during the Prime Minister's recent visit to the United Arab Emirates.
This is the first such agreement Greece has signed since World War II. This week I visited Jordan, following my visit to Iraq, while visits to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are also being scheduled; moreover, we are expecting the Indian Minister for Foreign Affairs to visit Athens soon.
Despite the problems caused by the pandemic crisis, we are creating new realities, working closely with the United States and France to this end.
We have reached a common outlook on various issues with Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, countries I visited in recent months, and we are also present in the Caucasus region.
As regards the United States, I must note our exceptionally successful cooperation with the outgoing Secretary of State, Mr Mike Pompeo. As you are aware, the number of meetings between our two Ministers of Foreign Affairs over such a period is unprecedented in Greek history, crowned by the renewal of the mutual defence cooperation agreement and the further upgrading of the role of Souda and the inclusion of Alexandroupoli in our joint defence planning. I should also inform you that discussions on the new MDCA are already underway.
Also worthy of special reference is the clear position expressed by the US Secretary of State during the most recent meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs, clearly stigmatising the destabilising role played by Turkey in NATO and in the region. Such a view voiced by a US Secretary of State in a NATO context is unprecedented.
The positions expressed by President-elect Biden on issues of Greek interest and his Cabinet picks that have been announced afford us the right to be even more optimistic regarding the prospects of US-Greek relations.
As regards Russia, Mr Lavrov’s successful visit to Athens was a major step towards the common goal of rebooting Greek-Russian relations. I must also note his clear position on Greece’s right — which is self-evident under International Law — to expand its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea to 12 miles. Mr Lavrov thus dispelled a historical myth.
With regard to China, as well, we are aiming at developing our already close economic relations.
We are trying to leverage our membership in the UN in the most beneficial way possible, participating in all initiatives to promote peace and stability in our wider region.
Ladies and gentlemen MPs, whenever we were absent, as in Syria and Libya, we paid a heavy toll.
We are doing the same in regional security organisations, such as NATO and the OSCE. Together with Cyprus, we are creating a permanent secretariat in Nicosia of our trilateral and quadrilateral partnerships. We are present, as is our duty, in sensitive fields concerning human rights. We completed a wholly successful Chairmanship of the Council of Europe under the leadership of the Alternate Minister, Mr Miltiadis Varvitsiotis.
We are seeking to strengthen relations with countries which, until recently, we considered beyond our range and interest. I am referring to India, which is participating in the major project of the new Heraklion airport.
We are seeing Africa clearly and are opening an Embassy in Senegal. We are expanding our presence in the sensitive Sahel region. We are driving forward our relations with Canada. My Canadian counterpart’s successful visit to Athens in October was the first in 20 years.
Diaspora Greeks remain our perennial, invaluable ally.
The Cyprus issue dominates our long-standing axes. Turkey's provocative and illegal actions in the fenced-off city of Famagusta and the Cypriot exclusive economic zone do not contribute towards creating a constructive atmosphere. The statements by the new Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Tatar, are also considered negative.
I believe everyone in this hall has agreed that the only way to resolve the Cyprus issue is to restart negotiations on the basis of the Resolutions of the UN Security Council and full implementation of the Community acquis.
We are working in this direction with the Cypriot government in a spirit of close cooperation and absolute consensus.
As regards Turkey, the Mitsotakis government has made it clear that we desire long-standing and good neighbourly relations, based on full respect for International Law. If Turkey also desires this, and with its European prospects remaining real, we will always be prepared for dialogue within the framework of International Law.
However, Turkey's government must prove in practice that it endorses dialogue in the context of International Law, and that this choice by Turkey is long-term and not incidental. That it is a characteristic of its policy choices rather than a flag of convenience.
I should also say that Greece’s stance is not dictated by any punitive attitude, but by our constitutional obligation to defend our sovereignty and sovereign rights. And there is no room for discounts, irrespective of who holds the office of Minister, irrespective of the party in government, irrespective of the stance of other countries, irrespective of the stance of the European Union, irrespective of anyone's stance.
It is being realised, not just on the part of Greece but by an increasingly larger section of the international community, that 21st-century Turkey is changing radically. There is a resurgence of nationalism, combined with intense revisionism, an intense neo-Ottoman Islamism, with a clear divergence from Western values such as democracy, human rights and respect for the rule of law.
Turkey's destabilising presence in Syria, Libya, Iraq and the Caucasus region, whether through incursions or as a jihadist ‘travel agency’, is a threat to Europe as a whole and to stability in the wider region.
The incitement of religious fanaticism in the heart of Europe, the instrumentalisation migrants, the effort to torpedo NATO, the attempt to create a new Turkish ‘Yalta’, the threat of war against a Member State of the European Union and of NATO if it chooses to exercise its right to expand its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, a right that is part of the European acquis, militarisation as a means of resolving disputes, the conversion of monuments of global artistic heritage into mosques, constitute a major challenge to the value system represented by the European Union, by the western world.
Faced with Turkey's revisionism, the European Union made certain decisions regarding Turkey at the most recent European Council meeting. It dismissed Turkey's tactics, with the withdrawal of the Oruc Reis as mere pretext. The European Union is now speaking of the need for continuous de-escalation, making reference to sanctions in specific areas such as trade and the economy for the first time and to the prospect of expanding the range of the existing sanctions regime — both a geographical and a thematic expansion.
Finally, the European Union called for sanctions to be imposed on additional persons and legal entities involved in illegal drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Ladies and gentlemen MPs, the Government never claimed that the aforementioned suffice. The Mitsotakis government never alleged that we dictate demands to the other 26 Member States and that they obey us. Instead, negotiations are carried out, hard negotiations, by the working groups, the Councils of Ministers, the European Council.
Our opinion is that there should be greater decisiveness in the decision making with respect to Turkey.
However, we will continue in our efforts, steadily, patiently, persistently. We are explaining to those who believe Turkey must not be lost, as they say, that not taking measures sends a message of encouragement to the anti-European, anti-modernisation section of Turkish society.
On the contrary, taking measures sends a message of encouragement to the pro-European, pro-modernisation section of Turkish society. If Turkey's current, vociferous policy is deemed successful, then those in Turkey who believe in the humane values of peace and security, those in Turkey who believe in human rights and convergence with Europe will be left hanging, will feel betrayed by Europe, the ideological homeland in which Ataturk tried to include them.
Ladies and gentlemen MPs, despite any bitterness and disappointment, whether or not justified, Europe remains our common home.
It is starting to realise the situation, but it tarries, hesitates and, at times, regresses. However, Europe must realise and face its geopolitical responsibility. It must grasp its responsibility to ensure regional security and stability, as well the safety of all its citizens against external threats. To defend the rule of law and the European acquis, which is the foundation of this unique undertaking in the history of mankind.
And I speak not just as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece, but as a dedicated citizen of Europe. The European Union was initially created to eradicate war from Europe. How can it appear to tolerate threats of war against members of the European family?
Or, to put it differently, what weapons system export has a greater footprint than the footprint of defending International Law?
I must stress that while Europe is procrastinating, the United States seem to have a clearer view of things. They are leveraging their geopolitical weight against Turkey, particularly in the crucial field of armaments. As you are aware, this week Congress passed with a significant majority a bill foreseeing sanctions on Turkey within 30 days due to the procurement of the well-known S-400 system.
Ladies and gentlemen MPs, the coming days will be particularly crucial. Foreign policy is far from the ideal space for party politics. The Mitsotakis government and the Prime Minister are discoursing seriously, with a view to establishing a national consensus through continuous briefing of political parties and an honest exchange of views. This is the course we will take for the rest of 2020 and in 2021, faced with Turkey's aggressiveness and European hesitation.
Thank you very much.
December 13, 2020