On Wednesday, 29 May, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Markos Bolaris received the former Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Rowan Williams, on the occasion of the latter's trip to Athens. An exchange of views took place on the immigration issue, the persecution that Christian populations face in many regions of the planet and especially in the Middle East, the destruction of their ancestral homes as well as a significant portion of world cultural heritage, and the appropriate responses on the part of States, religious institutions, and international organisations. The Deputy Minister briefed the Most Reverend Rowan Williams on the two-day conference on religious and ecclesiastical diplomacy organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (28/2-1/3), having invited representatives of every religion and dogma present in Greece, as well as representatives of primeval Orthodox Patriarchates, to voice their views on current issues of religious diplomacy, offering for the first time at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a new source of information from officials who daily deal with the existing restrictions to religious liberty. The Deputy Minister informed him of the establishment, for the very first time at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the Centre for Religious Liberty and Diplomacy, for the optimal management of related issues by the Greek State. The former Archbishop of Canterbury attributed an especially important role to Greece for communicating problems of peaceful co-existence in regions which traditionally were multireligious and multicultural. He laid out proposals for dealing with the radicalisation of Muslims in Western Europe and hoped that Greece and Great Britain continue to exhibit the political will to eradicate intolerance and to protect persecuted populations. The Most Reverend Rowan Williams agreed with the Deputy Minister on the contribution of continuous dialogue between Christian and Muslim religious leaders in this regard.
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