N. JUDEH: It was a great pleasure to welcome you my good friend, the Foreign Minister of Greece, to Jordan. Stavros and I have an excellent professional relationship and whenever we meet in international fora or international events we have been saying for a while that after he visits Jordan I should visit Greece. Now he has fulfilled his part and I hope to be able to do that at some stage. But Greece and Jordan have the best of relations, traditionally and historically, for many decades. We share common views on many issues that we face together. We had an excellent discussion this morning widely, overarching, comprehensive discussion on many issues, on dramatic events in our region, on the centrality of the Palestinian accord, the repercussions of what we both witnessed in New York certainly Greece and Jordan share the same view at the end of the day regarding a two state solution and the Palestinians achieving their right to state on their national soil and security for all countries in the region, that guarantee peace and security for all. And cooperation; not just between the countries of the region but between the region itself and other regions. So, we are extremely delighted, I don’t want to go into too much detail but we did also discuss bilateral relations and really make sure that we explore jointly any avenue to further cooperation.
S. LAMBRINIDIS: I would like to thank Nasser from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the Greek people as well, for his warm hospitality and for the extremely good and fruitful discussions we had. Indeed, he is absolutely right, when I assumed the job of the Foreign Minister, that he encouraged me to do a tour of the region, I remember it very well, it was our first meeting and I took him up on it. I think that this is extremely important for Greece, it is extremely important for the region, it is extremely important mostly for the connection that Europe and the European Union must have with Jordan in particular and with the region more broadly. In that sense, I am very happy and proud that Greece has been at the forefront of European countries supporting Jordan’s extremely close European ties and we will continue doing this in the future.
Now, Greece and the Hashemite kingdom share a long history of traditional, close and friendly relations. My visit here attests to a common way to ensure that we mutually complement our endeavors for peace, for stability, for prosperity in our common neighborhood. In fact, Nasser, Greece looks to the Hashemite kingdom as a bastion of peace and stability in the region. We acknowledge and we thank you for your efforts to promote dialogue and motivation, both domestically and regionally. The benefits of the reform process in Jordan will stand also as a beacon for the peoples of the entire region, and indeed as luck would have it, it is important to underline that both of our countries have embarked on a process of far reaching reforms, both political and economic. We are - in addition to being very close friends historically - also countries that can give an example today to our regions, of stability, of responsibility, of solidarity and this is exactly I think what we are both trying to do.
This is a visit that we are doing here in Jordan with a delegation of members of the Greek Parliament, of different political parties, and with a number of businessmen and businesswomen. For us, this is crucial and very important. Greece is a very strong country in spite of its own and of Europe's discussions today about getting out of the debt issue that affects us and affects our continent. It is a very strong country economically that is becoming even more extrovert, not introvert, because of the issues faced. We think it is extremely important that we bring serious business people together to cooperate. Jordan has an economy that is deeply and extremely promising. We also have to emphasize the fact that we have a cultural cooperation for a number of years, Nasser, there are thousands of Jordanians which we have had the privilege to have come to Greece, know our country, go to our universities and then return to Jordan as majored scientists and in many other positions. This is a relationship that I want to deepen and strengthen and I believe that we can talk about the details later, when we discuss about this.
Now, we did talk about the Balkans, we talked about the Middle East of course and the “Arab Spring”, we did -as Nasser said- speak about the Palestinian issue and I had the opportunity to express Greece's strong desire and concrete work and efforts to implement our shared vision for a democratic and prosperous Palestinian state which has to be created finally as soon as possible, and of course for peace and for security in the whole region, as Nasser mentioned.
We, in the European Union, spare no effort to move the process along to that direction and indeed, if there is a message that I want to give you Nasser and the Jordanian people, is that I am here both as a Greek Foreign Minister of course and also as a European Foreign Minister, and I think that the strengthening of our relations, the Jordanian and Greek ones, is hugely important. We should not allow only the people who have problems with each other to be talking to each other, we should also allow people who do not, to deepen their cooperation. I think that the European Union’s presence, that in Jordan and the region is of tantamount importance, we have a promising southern neighborhood, we have major infrastructure projects that involve Jordan that should be immediately discussed to the mutual benefit of our peoples and this is a commitment of me to you, that I will continue not simply as a Greek Foreign Minister but also as a European Foreign Minister to promote our mutual interests and your feelings about those issues with my colleagues in Europe.
Thank you deeply. Any time you can it will be an honor for me to host you in Athens, and to ensure you have a productive visit that you will remember for many years to come. So, thank you.
JOURNALIST: How does Jordan value the role of Greece in the Palestinian cause?
N. JUDEH: As I mentioned, Greek diplomacy has been involved in the active and the proactive political sense. Jordan, Greece and many Arab countries - Greece is a country that has good relations with everyone - we all have a common vision that has never changed, which is to have peace and stability in this volatile region that has seen too much violence and to resolve this Arab-Israeli problem in a fair and just endurable manner, because I think we are all, not just in the region but countries close to the region, emotionally as well as geographically, and we have all suffered. There is unanimous agreement in our debate that this is a conflict that has lingered on for too long and has been nagging us all, not to mention that it has added its cost, heavy-heavy cost, and bloodshed and violence and deprivation. There is an international will to resolve this conflict and Greece is very much part of this effort like I said before. It is a tool that has always been effective and a tool that we always welcome and also, as the Foreign Minister said, we come here today with the Greek Foreign Minister but also with a European Foreign Minister and Europe has been playing a very proactive role. So we welcome any contribution that Greece would make to further or advance or try to advance negotiations that will result in what we all want and that is an independent viable contiguous Palestinian state on Palestinian national soil and security for everyone in the region. I think at the end of the day, the youth of this region has every right to have the same opportunities that their peers across the globe have, and I think that they have suffered enough and we have suffered enough, but justice has to prevail.
JOURNALIST: Since one of the main issues of your tour is the Palestinian issue, why didn't you visit Israel and Palestine?
S. LAMBRINIDIS: I was very happy to be able to visit Israel and Palestine a month and a half ago, so I have already been there. And in New York as well, during the United Nations session, I had a chance to meet yet another time, both with President Abbas and with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr. Lieberman. And in general, let me assure you that when I say that Greece is involved in this, trying to facilitate an effective solution the way that the Foreign Minister described, we mean it. In other words these are not just words. George Papandreou the Greek Prime Minister, with extremely long and historical knowledge and ties to the region, has been as you can imagine very active with his counterpart. Finally, I wish that I had more time to be able to stay in Jordan a little longer and so, after your Foreign Minister fulfills his commitment to come to Greece, I promise to return to Jordan.
October 13, 2011