E. KOZAKOU-MARKOULLI: A very warm welcome to Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Dimas here at the Foreign Ministry. A very warm welcome with our best wishes for strength, stamina and every success in the very difficult task he and the Greek government are undertaking. We had the opportunity during this brief meeting – which will continue during a working luncheon – to exchange some views on the main issues we are facing. And of course this is the Greek Foreign Minister’s first visit abroad, with all the symbolism this visit has, but it is very timely because we are facing many, many challenges and major issues at this time, through to the end of the year.
We discussed the Cyprus issue. We discussed the issue of Turkey’s accession course, and we also looked at the matter of Turkey’s threats regarding the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus in the exclusive economic zone. As I said, we will be looking at these issues during our working luncheon, as well as at other issues, including the Republic of Cyrus’s EU Presidency in the second half of 2012, the Middle East issue and developments in North Africa and the other countries of the Middle East, and the enlargement issue, particularly as concerns the Western Balkans. We will look at these issues later on, but always in the spirit of great cooperation; very close cooperation and coordination, which are the two key words representing the relations between Cyprus and Greece.
Again, I welcome you and look forward to very close cooperation between us and the two Ministries in our confronting all of these major challenges.
S. DIMAS: Thank you very much, Erato. We will in fact be continuing the efforts that all of my predecessors have made so that we can get the optimum results from close cooperation. And I am glad that we agree completely on the way we will coordinate with one another and collaborate, because at this critical time we need to get results constantly, and those results have to be positive.
I also thank you very much for wishing me strength, because these really are circumstances under which we need strength, we need resolve, we need to put all our strength into working hard to get past the economic crisis. But the economic crisis is not the only problem we are facing. We also have the other very serious problems we discussed and will continue to discuss at the luncheon.
Our region, the Eastern Mediterranean region, is facing a time of instability, and of course our countries play a stabilizing role. And that is what we want our other neighbors to do – particularly Turkey, which could, if it revises its policy and avoids statements and actions that provoke tension, could contribute to progress in the talks. This would also ease Turkey’s own course – its EU accession course, its European perspective – and enable Ankara to contribute as an agent for stability in the region.
We also discussed the economic crisis and the determination of the Greek government, which has broad popular and parliamentary support for confronting the problems in cooperation with our partners in the European Union.
We also discussed the exclusive economic zone issue: the respect that all countries need to show for the Law of the Sea and European policy – and accession candidate countries need to show this as well. Respect for a policy aimed at energy security and sufficiency, at diversification of energy sources, which is a very important policy for the European Union.
Once again, thank you very much for the reception. It is always a great pleasure to be here in Cyprus.
November 22, 2011