In the context of his participation in the second EU-Arab World Summit, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Katrougalos stressed that the geostrategic environment has improved as compared to the situation prevailing at the time of the first World Summit, but that the structural causes of the successive crises have yet to be fully dealt with. “Consequently,” he added, “economic governance in Europe needs to become more democratic and balance out the economic and social dimensions. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be raising these issues at next week’s Social Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden. In the Arab World, the Islamic State has suffered overwhelming losses, but terrorism has not been vanquished definitively. And one of the wounds it leaves behind is the refugee crisis issue.” “In the face of these challenges,” the Alternate Minister stressed, “Greece plays a stabilizing role on a political and economic level. Through diplomatic initiatives like the Rhodes Conference, it is endeavouring to shape a security and stability system in the region. At the same time, our country’s orientation towards a new productive model based on the country’s comparative advantages, in combination with the strategic diversification of the economy that many Arab countries are implementing, is creating ideal conditions for deepening the economic cooperation. ”On the margins of the Summit, Mr. Katrougalos had bilateral meetings with the Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates, Mr. Al Mansoori, Qatar’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Al-Muraikhi, and Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Tarek Kabil. On the evening of 9 November he will be meeting with Bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, adviser to the Prime Minister of Bahrain, and Nabil Shaath, the representative of the President of Palestine.
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