Pages

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Statement by Alt. Minister of Foreign Affairs, G. Katrougalos, following the conclusion of the Trilateral Ministerial Meeting between Greece-Cyprus-Jordan (Nicosia, 19 December 2018)

“Thank you Nikos, Together with Ayman (Safadi), I would like first of all to express my gratitude for your warm hospitality and for your insight, and also for the possibility we had to discuss, also with President Anastasiadis, all the important problems of our area.All three of our countries are committed to Peace. We are not just pillars of Stability; we want to export Stability in the area. And we share the same values, respect for International Law, the resolutions of United Nations and through this angle, we discussed the Cyprus issue, the Palestinian conflict and all the other very important conflicts in our region, Syria above all. As you know, Greece and Cyprus are promoting many trilateral schemes of cooperation in the area. We in Greece have also tried to establish a regional system of stability and cooperation, the Rhodes Conference. But we especially value Jordan’s role in this endeavour, exactly for its role not just in promoting peace and security in the area, but also by accepting in a very humane way the burden of hundreds of thousands of refugees, both historically and during the present conflicts. Finally, it’s not just about stability and security. We have a common interest in promoting prosperity, and we have discussed how to be more productive and more concrete in this effort to promote the joint efforts of our economies. We have agreed to build tripartite committees in the areas of Energy, Tourism, Trade and Commerce, not to limit ourselves to Government-to-Government discussions, but to schedule also a private sector Forum because we fully recognize the fact that private sector is producing wealth. And above all we have decided to have a more concrete and a more structured follow-up. We have agreed and we have accepted the proposal of Nikos (Christodoulidis) to have a Permanent Secretariat here in Nicosia. So, I think that we have taken a progressive step forward and we have prepared the road of our leaders to meet in the first semester of next year and to take another step forward to this mutually beneficial for all three parties endeavour.Thank you.”


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.mfa.gr