D. AVRAMOPOULOS: I had the pleasure today of welcoming to Athens the Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Zlatko Lagumdzija.
During our talks, we carried out a detailed review of our bilateral relations. We also talked about regional and international issues.
We reaffirmed the high level of our bilateral relations and looked at the prospects for strengthening and promoting the whole range of our cooperation, with emphasis – beyond our political relations, of course – on the economy, tourism and trade.
Although the volume of our bilateral trade has risen in recent years, it is still a good ways from reflecting the very good level of our relations. We need to work together so that there can be mutually beneficial progress in this sector. There is also potential for growth in the area of business and tourism cooperation.
We also talked about the European perspectives of all the Western Balkan countries. We reiterated Greece’s firm and active support for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European course. We expressed our readiness to assist Bosnia and Herzegovina in its efforts to approach the EU more quickly. In this context, today we signed a relevant bilateral memorandum of cooperation.
I informed Mr. Lagumdzija that one of the priorities of the upcoming Greek EU Presidency, in the first half of 2014, will be to promote the European course of all the countries of the Western Balkans.
We exchanged views on the developments in the Balkans, the history of which is well known to everyone. This region has suffered much in the past. And even recently it has experienced tragic events – events that we need to put behind us so that we can turn our attention to the future.
The recent development we had with the agreement reached in the Belgrade-Pristina talks is tangible proof that the political will and determination exists to settle pending issues, to the benefit of the peoples, who can now look forward to joining our great European family with greater optimism.
We reaffirmed our support for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s NATO accession course.
We also talked about the economic crisis and its impact on Europe as a whole. Greece has made great progress in the critical sectors of fiscal adaptation and of regaining its competitiveness. At the same time, we are promoting and implementing major structural reforms.
We also talked about developments in the wider Eastern Mediterranean space, the situation in Syria, and the peace process and general situation in the Middle East.
Welcoming Mr. Lagumdzija once again to Athens, and thanking him for the constructive and productive talks we had today, I would like to assure him that Greece looks forward to further strengthening our bilateral relations, to the benefit of both our countries and our wider region. With these thoughts, I welcome him again and give him the floor.
Z. LAGUMDZIJA: Thank you very much. Of course, I want to thank my dear friend, Minister Avramopoulos, for giving such excellent remarks about what we spoke about and what we agreed. I also want to thank you for this opportunity to be here, so warmly accepted in Athens.
We had previous meetings, in some multilateral settings on different occasions, and this is not the first time that we are meeting, but this is the first time that we are having an official bilateral meeting and this is my first visit in the capacity of the Minister of Foreign Affairs this time in Athens. The Memorandum of Understanding that we signed, which is encouraging us more, proves the Greek friendship today. And tomorrow, while you are leading the Presidency of the European Union, we hope that 2014 will also be marked as the year in which Bosnia-Herzegovina moved significantly forward. This Memorandum itself is contributing to the strengthening of our bilateral cooperation on our Euro-Atlantic path.
I have just had the really great honor and privilege to meet my friend and colleague Mr. Avramopoulos in Parliament today, where I had a meeting with the Speaker of the Parliament, before the meeting with the President of the Hellenic Republic, and I would really like to thank everyone who I had the privilege to be talking with today.
We used this opportunity to talk about different issues, a wide range of issues on our bilateral agenda and regional international issues that were already mentioned. The existing level of cooperation of our two countries is so good that we actually have only one problem, how to make these relations and our activities go faster, because the direction that we are going is self-evidently the right one. And of course, as I said today in the meeting, we have one big problem; every time a Foreign Minister comes to some countries, he is talking about problems; and I had a problem in preparation for these meetings, which was to find out the problems we have with Greece. We actually found out that we had no problems.
We expressed our interest in the future strengthening of the overall bilateral cooperation and dialogue on all levels. We expressed especially interest in enhancing economic cooperation and looking for ways to strengthen our cooperation in important sectors, such as tourism and transport and everything that is related with the economy and with the projects that are boosting the economies of our countries.
Of course, next year the Hellenic Republic will again take the rotating Presidency of the European Union and we hope that we will be behind and ahead of your plans. We hope that we will be part of your plans in that respect and I am absolutely sure that we, countries of the region, who are now in different phases at the waiting room of being EU countries, we are very eager to get in. Greece is probably one of the top EU countries that is also eager to help us as well. Europe is not complete without the countries of our region being part of the European Union.
We spoke about 2014, not only with the symbolic and substantially important fact that Greece is having the European Union Presidency. Next year is a year which has symbolism and substance when it comes to the European past and the European future. 2014 is the year in which we will be marking the 100 years of divisions in Europe, modern, civilized divisions of the 20th century, which were actually nothing else but brutal wars. In 1914, those divisions of Europe started in Sarajevo. So, we hope and we will work together next year in order to show to Europe and to the rest of the world that Southeastern Europe and Europe is really entering the 21st century. The 21st century does not exist among us, if we do not stop the fears of the past and divisions in any part of the European continent. And that is the reason why we hope that we will work something together and that we will make it.
Next time, I hope that my dear friend, Minister Avramopoulos, will be my guest in Sarajevo and that we will further go through the agenda, that will be part of your agenda and our agenda when it comes to new agenda, in Thessaloniki 2 maybe, in order to mutually benefit from it.
Of course, I have to say in the end, we very much admire what you did for us. Greece and the Greek people did for us in the last 20, more than 20 years. This morning I woke up in Athens and I understood that I was in Greece. I was looking out the window and saw the Acropolis out there and I understood, of course, I was in Greece, in Athens. But every morning, when I go to the Parliament building in Bosnia-Herzegovina, when I go to meetings where we have sessions of the Parliament, sessions of the cabinet, I also see Greece because our Parliament is in the very center of the city, a five floor building and there is one twenty-something floor building that looks more impressive than when it was constructed 40 years ago. It is called the Greek-Bosnian Friendship Building. So, every time I get in my office or cabinet meeting in the Parliament, I see a symbol of our unity and our friendship.
We cannot make our past better, we cannot change our past. Of course, when we rebuild after destruction and wars, we cannot make older buildings, but sometimes we can make nicer environments after destruction. And believe me, that building today is much nicer than it used to be 30 years ago. And I am sure that that building, in the very capital of Sarajevo, is not the only symbol and substantial thing that is showing Bosnia Herzegovina and Greek friendship.
So, thank you very much again, and I am looking forward to our working together, so that one day the flag of Bosnia-Herzegovina is also a flag of an EU country.
JOURNALIST: You said you talked about developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, and Syria in particular. Whether we have anything new regarding the kidnapping of the two archbishops.
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: Unfortunately, the information that circulated yesterday has not been confirmed. We will continue to make every effort. You are aware that the Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Management Unit was activated from the very first moment, we are in contact with many countries, we briefed governments, and we would like to believe that this dramatic and tragic incident, which has already cost two lives, will close with the release of the two religious leaders.
The situation in Syria is escalating, unfortunately. All indications are that the country has gone deep into civil war. Europe is concerned. The whole world is watching, and we want to believe that the day when a new era opens up for the Syrian people won’t be long in coming.
Regarding the murders and abductions we mentioned and that we are monitoring very closely, naturally, that development is still in progress. We have no new information. Nevertheless, we are continuing our coordinated efforts, and we hope for a positive outcome.
JOURNALIST: Mr. Minister, one part of the question is addressed to you, and the other is for both of you. You will be going to Baku next week or the week after …
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: On Monday.
JOURNALIST: Right. Do you have reason to feel that the conditions you are going to find there will be better than the ones you found the last time you met with the Azeris, on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), I mean.
And a question for both Ministers: Whether, within the framework of the bilateral cooperation you talked about, you raised energy cooperation issues and, more specifically, whether you raised the issue of the TAP ahead of your visit to Baku.
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: First of all, the meeting coming up on Monday, in Baku – like the previous meetings – will take place in the same warm, friendly and positive climate. I remind you that I have already met with my colleague the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, and we have discussed a broad framework for our bilateral relations. All the procedures are under way. The project has been strengthened – a project that Greece supports, and a project that a growing circle of countries want and have expressed their desire to participate in and cooperate on.
With my good friend the Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we of course discussed issues that have to do with energy, because we are talking about our wider neighbourhood. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a neighbouring country, and everything we envision for the future will truly transform the wider Southeast European region into the best model of cooperation, friendship, stability and understanding.
We also talked about our energy cooperation. I briefed the Minister on the TAP project. I gave him a full description of how things have developed, the history of the project, where we stand now, and it is certain that he himself, in turn, when he has studied this proposal further, will give us his ideas and views. So we had an informative discussion, and I express publicly the desire and hope that we might welcome Bosnia and Herzegovina soon to the group of countries in the region who support the TAP. We want this, because we believe that it is yet another important factor in promoting this programme.
Z. LAGUMDZIJA: I want to thank Minister Avramopoulos for really giving me an excellent brief and outline of the latest activities concerning TAP. Bosnia-Herzegovina is very much interested to be part of all regional initiatives that are dealing with economic cooperation which is related to the energy sector in general and in particular when it comes to a project like TAP. I was very encouraged by the briefing that I had from the Minister today and we hope that in the next days and weeks we will get a little bit more familiar with all options and I am sure that we will find a mutual interest to get into. Bosnia-Herzegovina, when we were part of former Yugoslavia, just to remind you, Bosnia-Herzegovina was a Republic that was designated for few things but one of the things that we were designated for was electricity. This is the reason why Bosnia has a lot of electricity potential. The last big electricity power plant was made when President Tito was alive. We are exporting electricity but we are in need of a different type of energy which is related also with the gas. Bosnia-Herzegovina is also one of the gas consumers. So, TAP is one of the projects that I hope that will contribute not only to the economic activities but to overall closeness of all of us. In the end, we will all benefit from this project because it will make us integrate ourselves better and in more reasonable way that will lead us to the overall process of prosperity through the reconciliation. It’s bizarre, but energy and reconciliation are very well connected and I really do thank for the briefing on this project. I am sure we will be working together in the future on it.
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: Thank you very much.
April 24, 2013