Statements of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, following his meeting with his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Athens, 25 September 2020)

It is a great pleasure to welcome my friend and colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

First of all, I would like thank His Highness  for the very kind gesture of providing medical supplies to Greece this past March. A gesture that helped strengthen our National Health System at a very difficult time. A gesture of friendship.

Your presence in Athens today, Your Highness, reflects in the best possible way the excellent level of relations between our countries. This was also reconfirmed in your very warm meeting earlier with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

These relations are founded on our shared will to develop a strong cooperation framework for the benefit of our peoples. Our countries see the opportunities arising in the same way. Also, we respond in the same way to the challenges emerging in our wider region.

Greek-UAE relations have become strategic in nature, upgrading the multi-level ties between us.

In the economic sector, there is already a strong institutional foundation that we hope will lead to a new era. The Memoranda of Understanding and Joint Action Programme we concluded in the context of the two Strategic Fora we held this year will act as multipliers. We are capitalizing on the opportunities for cooperation that exist in the sectors of investments, trade, tourism and culture, health, digital services and agriculture.

With regard to energy, Greece and the UAE recognise the vital importance of capitalizing on Green Energy through synergies in the sector of renewable energy sources.

Similarly, defence cooperation is lending new depth to our relations.  The recent visit of the head of the UAE armed forces to Greece, as well as the joint training of our pilots and the presence of UAE planes in Souda, is indicative of this.

We also had an extensive exchange of views on the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and the recent developments with regard to Turkey’s actions. Greece remains committed to dialogue in good faith, based on international law, without blackmail or threats.

I expressed to His Highness the hope that Turkey will adopt this logic, consistently and in the long term, abandoning its illegal actions and provocations and making dialogue its priority.

Respect for international law, the international law of the sea and good neighbourly relations is an obligation, not a choice.

It is the only way to consolidate security and stability in our region. And we fully share this outlook.

Today, we also talked about the UAE’s relations with the EU. I was very interested to hear my colleague’s analysis regarding the Middle East, Libya, the Gulf and Iran.

The UAE is a very important country for Greece. Not just in the Gulf region, but in the wider region, and not just in the context of the Arab world, but in the context of the global community. This is why its views and the model of stability that it represents are of enormous importance.

The UAE works in favour of  stability and security in the region. Goals that other countries undermine, actively and consistently.

From the very outset, the Greek government welcomed the historic Abraham Accords on the normalisation of UAE and Bahraini relations with Israel. An agreement, Your Highness, in which you participated actively.

Greece remains fully committed to the Peace Process and believes that these agreements will contribute to the resumption of the peace process between our Israeli and Palestinian friends, enhancing security in the wider region. In this context, we welcome the decision to hold elections in the Palestinian Territories.

Finally, I was briefed on the UAE initiative for promoting interfaith dialogue and on the results of the recent international conference the UAE hosted. We wholeheartedly welcome these initiatives, which enhance tolerance, pluralism, mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence.

With these thoughts, I once again welcome you to Athens, my dear colleague.