Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick on visit to Tunisia (Tunis, 23 April 2019)

“Tunisia is a country with which we have excellent political and diplomatic relations as well as great interest in strengthening our economic cooperation on all levels.

During my contacts here, with the Secretary of State to the Minister of Transport Adel Jarboui, as well as with the Secretary of State to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sabri Bachtobji, the need was stressed for more structured air and sea connections.

On the one hand, the air connection will commence from the beginning of June, during the tourist season, with direct flights by AEGEAN, and on the other, the sea connection which pertains to commercial transports is in the works, with very special conditions, thanks to two shipping companies with which we are still holding discussions, though I am unable to provide further details at the moment.

Greek entrepreneurs that are active in Tunisia entrusted me with this issue as an immediate priority, given that there is a great delay in receipt of all types of goods they order from Greece. And as you can understand, timely and accurate delivery of goods also benefits the outward-looking nature of Greek enterprises and the Greek economy.

Moreover, every year we have a very significant increase in the trade balance to the benefit of Greece.”

This is what Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick stated, completing his one-day visit to Tunisia as the head of the business mission (SEV-ACCI-SEVE), as well as with bilateral meetings of special interest.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs especially thanked the Tunisian Union of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts for the excellent organisation of the economic forum, with numerous B2B meetings which led to very positive results.

Along with the business mission, Mr Quick also met with the Presidium and members of the Greek Community in Tunisia, a meeting that was attended also by Metropolitan Meletios of Carthage.

On the part of the Greek community, there was one sole request: for a teacher from Greece to be posted, to run the Greek language department, in which Tunisians also show particular interest, who are interested in learning Greek for educational and business purposes.

The Greek Ambassador to Tunisia, Teresa Angelatou, accompanied the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs on all his meetings.