Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ statement following his meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry (Cairo, 1 December 2019)

Today I had the pleasure of visiting my friend the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry, here in Egypt.

We had the opportunity to discuss bilateral issues and a wide range of issues concerning the region of the southeastern Mediterranean and the Gulf. As always, we share a common perspective with Egypt on most of the problems.

And of course we discussed the two memoranda signed between Turkey and the Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya, Mr. Sarraj. We both have the impression, first of all, that Mr. Sarraj probably lacks the necessary legitimacy to sign these memorandums. But in any case, they function as destabilising factors for the wider region. We will continue to monitor the situation.

We also agreed with the Egyptian Minister to accelerate the discussions between the technical teams on characterisation and delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zones between Greece and Egypt.

In any case, it is always a very important opportunity when I come to Egypt and we are able to discuss our bilateral issues.