Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his concern over the escalation of the crisis in the Middle East, during a conversation in Davos with ‘Foreign Policy’ Editor-in-Chief Ravi Agrawal on Thursday afternoon.
Mitsotakis is in Switzerland Thursday and Friday to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The PM referred to developments in the Red Sea and said, “Now that we are trying to reduce inflation, every break in the supply chains can only complicate the efforts by central banks.”
He underlined that Greece is speaking with all sides, and kept a moderate stance on the Middle East crisis, supporting the right of Israel to self-defense and the innocent civilians in Gaza. He said that nobody can come to terms with the fact that 1,000 children are dead in Gaza. “I do not think that Israel is strategically interested in creating a new generation of orphans,” he noted, while expressing the hope that the crisis end the soonest possible and the political issue is resolved so that both sides may live peacefully.
In terms of Ukraine, he said that Greece supported it from the very start diplomatically and militarily, and that Europe is united in its support of Kiev. The coming European Council will reach an agreement on aid to Ukraine, while he also expressed the opinion that despite his optimism, he did not believe the war would end soon.
Speaking of Turkiye, he expressed optimism that what he called ‘the Swedish obstacle’ would be overcome sooner or later. “We truly had complicated relations with Turkiye. During my first term, we had very difficult times. Since the earthquake in Turkiye we have tried our best to build bridges,” he said, while even if Greece and Turkiye do not resolve their difference on the EEZ delimitation, they can still coexist and build on the positive agenda, which includes, for example, providing Turkish tourists with short-term visas to Greek islands and collaborating on the migration issue.
“I am not naive – we have seen dramatic changes in Turkiye’s policy in the last few years, but I want to be optimistic and I want to build on the positive steps both countries have taken during the last few months,” Mitsotakis said.
