Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday (local time) during the NATO Summit in Madrid.
The two leaders spoke about the strong relationship between the two countries, the contribution of the Greek diaspora to the fabric of the Australian society and reaffirmed their goals towards expanding their bilateral relations.
Mr Albanese and his counterpart also discussed potential investments from the Greek community in Australia and vice-versa, while the Australian PM once again invited Mr Mitsotakis Down Under.
He then went on to post a picture on Twitter captioning that it was “good to catch up” .
Mr Albanese established Australia’s presence as part of the first formal Asia Pacific delegation alongside the leaders of New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.
Aside from a one-on-one with Mr Mitsotakis, he also met with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Mr Mitsotakis, on the other hand, held working meetings with the prime ministers of the United Kingdom, Sweden and Canada.
According to a spokesperson from Mr Mitsotakis’ office, the Greek PM highlighted the prospects for deepening bilateral cooperation and identified priority areas, such as trade, tourism and defence with the UK.
In addition, Mr Mitsotakis reiterated his stance that sanctions on Russia must be implemented by all NATO member states as leaders agreed to NATO’s new 10-year strategic blueprint.
All 30 member-groups agreed to treat Russia as the “most significant and direct threat to the allies’ security, condemning its brutal and unlawful invasion of Ukraine as having gravely altered Europe’s security environment”.
Mr Mitsotakis stressed that Greece would remain standing on Ukraine’s side and welcomed the invitation to Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the Summit.
The meeting took place after the Turkish president told reporters on Tuesday that “Turkey’s door has closed for Greece “and that he will not be holding any bilateral conversations with Mr Mitsotakis “whatsoever” and ruled out the possibility of holding talks with the Greek PM during the Summit to discuss recent tensions in the Aegean.
However, Mr Erdogan’s meeting with Mr Biden was heavily focused on “the importance of maintaining stability in the Aegean”.
During another meeting on a subject that was not disclosed, Mr Erdogan did greet Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias according to the Greek Foreign Ministry. The meeting was also attended by the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis; of Poland, Zbigniew Rau; and of Portugal, Joao Cravinho.