Venizelos calls for national unity, at embassy event with US Greeks

Greece is now entering "the final phase, before exiting the crisis," government Vice President and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos said early on Wednesday morning (Greek time) at the Greek Consulate General in New York City, where he is as head of the Greek mission to the UN General Assembly meeting.

"What we need, most of all, is national unity," Venizelos said, "and our first aim is to safeguard social cohesion, and support the weakest strata."

At an event including presidents and officers of Greek-American agencies, Foreign Ministry officials and Greek respresentatives to the UN and the US, Venizelos underlined that Greece was "trying to keep intact our foreign policy and our policy of security and defence, throughout this period of crisis."

"Nobody has pressured us under the threat of the economic crisis on issues of our concern, which is the well-known list of our great national issues. This is of great significance. We, on our side, have also not allowed and never will allow the linking of issues of economic policy and economis assistance with issues of foreign policy and political secruity," he asserted.

The Foreign minister also called on Greeks abroad not to reproduce any of Greece's domestic political disagreements: "I want to beg you and ask of you...to avoid reproducing any of Greece's political disagreements. Preserve national unity as the apple of your eye, for unity is something we unfortunately do not understand within Greece as we ought to. Support the homeland strongly and with love, as you always have done, and be proud of your Greek identity."

Venizelos said that Greek-Americans could contribute through their current homeland to the network Greece has abroad "in politics, academics, economy, research, the mass media and everywhere."

Among other things, the Foreign minister referred to the Cyprus issue and the political insecurity of the greater area and said that "Greece is a secure reference point, and this is understood by all, enemies and friends both." Greece was doing its best through the developments in the area to protect its national interests, he added.