Minister of Foreign Affairs George Gerapetritis’ opening remarks at Konrad Adenauer Foundation (New York, 04.06.2024)

Thank you so much, dear Thomas. Thank you everyone for being here.

It is an exceptional honour for me to be here with you and to address you in view of our forthcoming, hopefully, election at the Security Council of the United Nations. It is for Greece, a small, medium country, an exceptional honour to become a member of the Security Council. And especially with the group of other countries, the fellow candidates we are very much looking forward to cooperating and coordinating our activities in order to be able to bring some added value to the Security Council.

The truth is that, if elected, we are going to join the Security Council at the most challenging times of the post-war era, with two ongoing wars, which is unfortunately a very adverse situation and huge ecumenical challenges, such as the climate crisis, food insecurity, aggression, and geopolitical tensions. In the globalised world we are living today, it is the responsibility of all countries to preserve peace and tranquillity and to promote prosperity. It is going to be difficult yet challenging, so we are very much looking forward to it.

As you probably know, Greece is one of the founding members of the United Nations, one of the 51 founding members of the United Nations. We have been twice, in the past, a non-permanent member of the Security Council, in 1952 and in 2005. Under, I dare say, better conditions.

But the major question is what a country such as Greece could offer to the Security Council.

First of all, I would like to say that Greece is a country firmly based on international law. We think that the prevalence of international law is a milestone in order for the world to advance. We believe in the peaceful coexistence of nations and states. And this is why we have used our motto, the three “Ds” - Dialogue, Diplomacy and Democracy -, which exactly indicates the need to discuss, to become deliberative. I have to say that it has been very disappointing, in recent times, that we have lost our deliberative spirit. We do not discuss in a deliberative manner. We see a lot of extremism coming up, and unfortunately, there is not much diplomacy in place. We need to revisit the whole principle of peaceful resolution of disputes, which actually is enshrined in the UN Charter. And to see how we can make it meaningful, because unfortunately, it has lost its meaning.

We are very keen to develop a new idea of adherence to International Law and to also put some leverage on the United Nations. It is true that the United Nations and all other international organisations had to deal with many simultaneous crises, without having contemporary tools to address all these challenges.

On many occasions, not only in the United Nations but also in the European Union, we saw difficulties in achieving consensus, even for minor issues. So, we need to rethink and potentially reshape the decision-making process within the United Nations.

Greece is a strong nation when it comes to its maritime fleet. You know that we have the strongest and most vibrant merchant fleet in the world. I think it is very important to ensure maritime security at these times. Due to the evolving situation in the Middle East, maritime security is under threat. We see the situation in the Red Sea and the risks in the maritime corridors. We need to restore security for international trade.

Greece is located in a region that is historically very burdened, at the crossroads of three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Eastern Mediterranean has been the epicentre of great civilizations since ancient times, but it has also been the site of a great number of conflicts.

Greece is also situated in the Balkan Peninsula, a peninsula that has generated many conflicts in the past. It seems to suffer from many destabilising factors even today. We are firmly of the idea that the future of the Western Balkans belongs to the European family, and we have been working very hard for this.

You see when it comes to Greece, we have on our North, the Balkans, and especially the Western Balkans. In the East, we have the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, Türkiye. In our South, there is Africa, Egypt, and Sahel - we all know how the situation in Sahel is. And we need to try harder to establish a more peaceful environment in the Sahel. I think it is important for a country like Greece to try to become the bridge among various nations and states.

If elected within the Security Council, we aspire to become the synthesis of the South and the North and of the West and the East. We can do it because Greece has the privilege of talking to all its neighbouring nations. We are among the few states, I think, that are on good diplomatic terms with all major states and all our neighbouring states.

Now in the Middle East, we have taken a very principled stance, and we have declared very firmly that the situation has become intolerable. This is why we fully endorse the plans for an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and the vision for a two-state solution for the Palestinian people. And we are able to advance, to the best of our competence, all the ideas, the peace formulas, because we talk to our Arab friends and we also talk to the Israelis. And on many occasions, we have the opportunity, exactly because we do have those channels of dialogue, to convey to the Israelis that this situation, this nightmare,  has to stop immediately. We are happy to say that in the last few days, we have seen significant peace plans, coming also from President Biden.

Next week, we are going to be in Amman. I personally will be in Amman to negotiate with our Arab friends, especially the Foreign Ministers of Jordan and Egypt, who have taken the lead in negotiating the peace formula. A week ago, we hosted in Greece the Emir of Qatar. Again, we wanted to try to advance the peace formula in the Middle East.

Greece is a pillar of stability and is in a position to enhance the idea that our broader region, which is in turmoil at the moment, will find proper balance again. We expect to have a meaningful and important contribution to the Security Council.

To conclude, I would like to mention that our priorities for the Security Council, refer, apart from the adherence to International Law, the revisiting of the fundamental premises of International Law, the safeguarding of maritime security, also to the protection of children affected by wars. Humanity cannot tolerate the images that we have encountered in the last eight months.

We need to re-establish a meaningful and effective nexus of rules to protect children, but also women and other vulnerable groups. This is why it is our priority to establish rules protecting children and women within the context of war.

Of course, last but not least our priority is addressing the climate crisis. We can only see that the situation is deteriorating in an immense way and we need to take appropriate action immediately.

Last month, we hosted in Greece the 9th Our Ocean Conference for the protection of seas and oceans. 125 delegations worldwide came to Athens, and we made as many as 400 commitments, amounting to a total of 11.5 billion dollars. We had a very successful reunion, but this is not enough.

The sea temperature in the Mediterranean is rising by almost 2 degrees Celsius. That means that in the very near future, we are going to encounter tremendous damage also in the maritime environment. We need to coordinate our activity to take some brave steps, and conduct some brave policies in order to re-establish the environmental formulas for the benefit of future generations. Because after all, what is important is to secure peace and prosperity for the current generations, but above all to maintain an environment of peace, tranquillity, and prosperity also for future generations.

I would like to thank wholeheartedly the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Konrad Adenauer was one of the pillars of the idea of European integration and of a peaceful international community.

I can only promise you that this is not a pre-election campaign. The good thing is that I do not come from politics, strictly speaking. I am an academic and have only joined politics in the last few years.

I can promise you, and that could be a meaningful promise, that we will be here with you even after we are, hopefully, elected at the Security Council, and we will make sure with our Ambassador that you will have full information concerning all the resolutions within the Security Council. And we will do our best to coordinate our activities because we firmly believe, as ancient Greeks thought, that if we are all united, the added value of the sum of our efforts will be greater than the individual ones.

So, thank you so much for this. Thank you so much for the invitation, dear Thomas.