Stocktaking Report of Foreign Minister N. Kotzias’ participation in UNGA Week (High-Level Week of the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly, New York, September 17-23, 2016)

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias completed a round of contacts and meetings that were all held during the High-Level Week of the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations which took place in New York, where he accompanied Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, between September 17 and 23.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs had a series of bilateral and trilateral meetings and also took part in debates, discussions and high-level events as well as in Ministerial Meetings organized by international and regional organizations.

Indeed, Foreign Minister Kotzias had a number of peer meetings, i.e. with Korean Minister Yun Byung-se, Bolivian Minister David Choquehuanca Céspedes, Libyan Minister Mohamed Taha Siala, Qatari Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, Iraqi Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, FYROM Minister Nikola Poposki, and, moreover, met the Foreign Minister of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj.

He also met with Espen Barth Eide, Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on Cyprus, Iyad Ameen Madani, Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and Matthew Nimetz, Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Furthermore, he participated in the very first trilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Cyprus and Palestine, as well as in the trilateral meeting of Greece, Cyprus and Egypt. In addition, he took part in the second quadrilateral meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania.

Minister Kotzias took part in the EU Foreign Ministerial Dinner and the Transatlantic EU-NATO Foreign Ministers Dinner and met with representatives of the PanMacedonian Association, the Cypriot Diaspora and major Jewish-American Organisations.

The Foreign Minister presented the positions of Greece on major regional issues during a speech he made for the ‘Council on Foreign Relations’, a think tank, and in the ensuing discussion, while he, moreover, attended the annual Ministerial Dinner on the Middle East that the ‘International Peace Institute’ hosted.

Throughout his stay and UNGA proceedings in New York City, the Foreign Minister accompanied Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to the meetings he had with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, US Vice-President Joe Biden, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.