Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis who is visiting Egypt on Thursday called his visit and meeting with Egyptian President El-Sisi “brief but productive”.
“As you already know I have an excellent personal relation with President El-Sisi and I am here to reaffirm the strategic depth of relations between Greece and Egypt and to thank Egypt for their actions to support my country by sending military helicopters to assist in the battle with the wildfires”, Mitsotakis stated after the meeting and his visit to the monument of the fallen Greeks in El Alamein.
In statements to the press, Mitsotakis said, “We had the opportunity to discuss all the issues of our cooperation, to make an overall assessment of the geopolitical condition in the eastern Mediterranean. To reaffirm that Greece and Egypt are factors of stability in our wider geopolitical region. But also to discuss new prospects of cooperation with emphasis on issues of energy that now the interconnection between Greece and Egypt via a cable of electric energy is a project that appears to have the support of the European Union.
“But also to reaffirm our volition to cooperate also on matters that have to do with human resources. As you already know, there is currently a shortage in human resources in Greece, whether we speak of the priamry sector or construction and we have launched a plan for the speedy implementation of the initial idea regarding cooperation in this sector. As I have said several times, we want to encourage legal migration but we will be very strict with illegal migration. Egypt can offer assistance to Greece to cover our needs in human resources.
“All the above will have as capstone the decision to proceed to the establishment of a Supreme Council of Cooperation with Egypt, with the presence of many members of the Cabinet. We hope that the first meeting of such a council will take place in Greece early in 2024, when we will invest even more to this relation in the interest of both Greece and Egypt and of our peoples”.
At a press question by an ERT reporter (Greek public broadcaster) if the Greek-Egyptian relations “acquire a strong dynamic, autonomous dynamic independent from third factors and other powers, Mitsotakis replied, “Of course, the Greek-Egyptian relations are autonomous and strong. They are not related to third parties and do not depend on any relations we may have with other countries in the eastern Mediterranean. This is something we have clarified with President El-Sisi, this is the character of these relations, it is a strategic relation which Greece has developed with Egypt which has a lot to give in many different sectors in the future.”
