Foreign Minister, Giorgos Gerapetritis, will have a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority on Thursday.
The Foreign Minister will meet with the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad Shtayyeh, and with Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki. The purpose of the meeting is to establish humanitarian corridors. According to Gerapetritis, “Greece is in favour of humanitarian pauses.”
Gerapetritis made several more comments on Greek foreign policy while interviewed on SKAI TV.
Specifically, the Foreign Minister noted that “Greece has significant diplomatic capital. It has earned it in recent years thanks to its consistent foreign policy” while adding that “we cannot accept any act of terrorism.”
Regarding developments in the Middle East, he reiterated that Greece is in favour of international law, stressing that its foreign policy is a foreign policy of principles.
In what concerns Greco-Turkish relations, Gerapetritis said that “we have managed to have a channel of communication with Turkey that allows us not to end up in a crisis every time we have a disagreement. And we still have many disagreements. The main disagreement in relation to the pseudo-state, the alleged northern Cyprus.”
Gerapetritis also reiterated that “we also have serious disagreements in our reading of the Middle East. We may have a different starting point, such as the delimitation of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone. But there are issues that we can sit down to discuss.”
On the crucial issue regarding the demilitarisation of the easternmost Aegean islands – which Turkey has been pushing for during the past years – Gerapetritis commented that “issues concerning Greek national sovereignty have never been raised at my level. There is no question of demilitarization of islands, or of any matter on national sovereignty.”
Finally, in what concerns a potential Greco-Turkish appeal to The Hague – on both the issue of the delimitation of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone – Gerapetritis stressed that “we are far from having a common understanding on the procedure, the way and the content of an appeal to The Hague.” However, the Foreign Minister added that “this is an opportunity to discuss issues that are decades old.”
