Foreign Minister Kotzias’ statement on completion of his meetings in Israel (7 July 2015)

N. KOTZIAS: We can characterize our trip to Israel as a success. We will be leaving for Palestine shortly.

We met, first of all, with the Energy Minister, then with Prime Minister Netanyahu, with the Deputy Prime Minister for migration and the Palestinian issue, Mr. Shalom. We saw President Rivlin, and we saw a number of the Prime Minister’s advisers on foreign policy and economy issues. We also saw Deputy Foreign Minister Hotovely, as well as Ms. Livni, from the opposition.

We saw people who show a great interest in where Greece is going. We talked about Greek-Israeli cooperation. We found our common points. It is obvious that we do not have just coinciding views: we also have differing views and opinions on a number of issues. But what we looked at were the common strategies that we can have on matters of energy, technology, water exploitation, military cooperation and cooperation on security and stability issues.

We talked about the need for both states to contribute to the stability of the Eastern Mediterranean, and about how to best use the ties that have been created and the incubating institutional framework that exists among states of the region.