D. AVRAMOPOULOS: I had the very great pleasure today of receiving Mr. Mohamed Kamel Amr, our friend the Foreign Minister of Egypt, with whom I have met many times in the past, and we had said that we would start a new chapter in our relations as soon as possible
We had an in-depth discussion of bilateral and major regional issues. And we reaffirmed what I would call the decades-old strategic character of our relations – relations that were further strengthened by the important bilateral agreements we just signed.
We looked at the enhancement of our cooperation in the economic sector, with particular emphasis on tourism, exports, trade and investments. Greece is the fifth largest investor in Egypt, and this is tangible proof of our confidence in the leadership, the people and the economy of Egypt.
Today’s signing of the Agreement on the re-founding of the Greek-Egyptian Business Council, as well as the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the ports of Piraeus and Alexandria, will give fresh momentum to our business and trade relations. Our entrepreneurs are inspired and dynamic people. The re-establishment of the Council is being recreated in the institutional cooperation framework, which can also be expanded beyond the borders of our bilateral economic relations, as I had the opportunity to tell the Minister a short while ago.
Also important is the contribution of the two most historic ports of the Mediterranean – the ports of Alexandria and Piraeus, which, in the new state of affairs that has taken shape in international trade, and with the presence and participation of our country’s very powerful and globally present merchant fleet, will certainly open new channels of communication in our trade relations, also serving global trading activities.
We also had the pleasure a short while ago of signing an agreement on the mutual waiving of visas for diplomatic, official and special passports.
I also had the opportunity to talk to my colleague the Foreign Minister about some issues being faced by the Holy Monastery of Sinai. I hope that we can get the resolution of these issues under way soon, with the help of the Egyptian government.
We shared common concern at the bizarre attacks of racial violence, the victims of which have sometimes been peaceable, hardworking Egyptian immigrants in our country. As small in scale as these incidents are, we condemn them, and we will be at the side of anyone effected by this vulgar and barbarous conduct, which bears no relation to our ethos and culture, and for which the Greek government is determined to show zero tolerance.
We naturally discussed issues concerning our wider neighbourhood, because the Middle East is also our neighbourhood – issues that concern peace, security and stability, and that of course presuppose the just solution of the Palestinian problem. A solution based on two states, where a Palestinian state will co-exist in peace with Israel. And that it is imperative at this time that President Abbas be supported by the whole of the international community.
We are also concerned at the ongoing bloodshed in Syria, where it is obvious that there is no military solution. The only way out of the impasse is the political resolution of the crisis, and, in this context, the relevant U.S.-Russian initiative should enjoy the sincere support of all countries.
My dear friend Mohamed, our peoples have known each other, as I said earlier, for some 4,000 years now, and they know each other very well. We can say with pride that we are the most historical peoples of the Mediterranean, and we always remember the great contribution of Egyptian civilization to the modern western world.
The centuries that have passed have brought us even closer, and in recent centuries – and even more so in recent decades – Greece has been a channel for Egypt to Europe, and Egypt has been a channel for Greece to the Middle East and Africa. Our peoples – the citizens of our two nations – have been meeting on this two-way channel for centuries, in letters, in the arts, in science, trade, transport. And so we will continue in the future. And today, with your visit here, which is of an historic nature, we have taken another step forward. And our signing a short while ago of a memorandum of cooperation on European Union issues crowns this visit.
As you know, Greece’s EU Presidency is coming up in the first half of 2014, and we want you to feel that we are there regarding all the issues that concern you – there on the front line, to promote those issues. We know that you want to have better and deeper relations with Europe, and that is why this channel, this path and this door, which passes through Greece, will always be open to you.
In this spirit, my dear friend Mohamed, I welcome you once again to the City of Athens and to Greece. On your return to your beautiful country, please convey the most beautiful and sincerest feelings of friendship from all of us in our country. I thank you, and I bid you take the floor.
KAMEL AMR: Thank you very much, Excellency and dear friend. I am pleased to be here today in Athens, at the kind invitation of my dear friend, Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos.
I had the opportunity this morning to meet with his Excellency the Prime Minister, where we discussed the issues of concern to both Greece and Egypt, I am also looking forward to meeting His Excellency the President later this afternoon.
In the meeting today with my dear friend Dimitris, we had the opportunity to look at the whole range of bilateral relations as well as regional developments. We expressed our interest in the further promotion of bilateral cooperation between our two countries, with great emphasis on the economic and trade sectors; in this regard, we signed a number of agreements and an MoU with a view to bolstering our bilateral relations, including an agreement for the establishment of the Egyptian-Greek Business Council and an MoU on cooperation between the ports of Alexandria and Piraeus, which can serve as a springboard for further upgrading our trade and the investment relationship. Actually, this agreement can affect more than that, more than bilateral relations, we talked about Greece being our gateway to Europe; the same thing can happen with Alexandria, with Egypt, we can be your entry point not only to the Middle East, but to Africa also, we discussed this of course during our meeting today.
We also had the opportunity to discuss the issue of social insurance pensions owed to Egyptians who used to work in Greece and moved back to Egypt, and I was very pleased actually at the response that we received today; in this regard, we extended an invitation to the Greek side for a delegation from the Social Insurance Institute of Greece, IKA, to visit Cairo and meet with their Egyptian counterparts in order to iron out any difficulties and the reactivation of the Egyptian-Greek agreement on the transfer of social insurance contributions and pensions.
On regional issues, we exchanged views on the situation in Syria, a very tragic situation indeed, and I think His Excellency has elaborated on that. We both agreed that the blood bath in that country has to stop and that there has to be a political solution to the current crisis that guaranteed Syria’s unity, territorial integrity and ensures a new brighter future which could only be achieved through dialogue, and we always express our opinion that in Syria’s future and the Syria of the future, there is no place for those have blood on their hands, for those who have been killing innocent Syrians. We both look forward to a successful conclusion of the Geneva II Conference.
With respect to the Palestinian question, I thank Dimitris, my dear friend, for his country’s principled position and its continued support for the creation of an independent viable Palestinian State, based on the pre-1967 borders, with Eastern Jerusalem as its capital, and particularly Greece’s support of Palestinian membership of UNESCO in 2011, and also Greece’s vote at the General Assembly in favor of upgrading Palestine’s status to that of UN member observer status last November.
In conclusion, I would like to once again thank my dear friend here for the hospitality shown to us since our arrival here, and I am looking forward to continuing our close contacts and coordination, particularly in the run-up and during Greece’s Presidency of the EU Counsel early next year. Thank you very much once again.
June 13, 2013