Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday received visiting Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs at the Maximos Mansion. Their talks focused on strengthening bilateral relations and the common challenges faced by Greece and Latvia, such as migration and attempts to instrumentalise it. They also stressed the importance of protecting the European borders and effective management of migration flows.
“I believe the geopolitical challenges that we face in Europe these days are such that they make strong cooperation essential on many fronts. I truly look forward to us making use of this visit to specify additional sectors of cooperation. It is truly my pleasure to welcome you to Athens,” Mitsotakis said at the start of the meeting.
They also discussed issues of European and international interest, with emphasis on the latest developments in Ukraine, ahead of a NATO summit in Washington on July 9-11, which marks the 75th anniversary since the foundation of the Alliance. In this context, they underlined the need to boost European defence.
Mitsotakis briefed the Latvian president on his joint initiative with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for the creation of a European air defence dome, which will be financed with European funds, and repeated the need to strengthen the European defence industry.
Thanking Mitsotakis for his warm welcome, the Latvian president highlighted the very good and friendly relations between Riga and Athens, both on a bilateral level and with respect to EU and NATO issues.
He expressed his conviction that all member-states of the EU and NATO must cooperate to face the very serious challenges in security, to continue supporting Ukraine and continue dealing with the challenges to security in the Middle East.
“I also believe that our two countries face similar challenges in their neighbourhood, as in the sector of migration. We observe the use of migration as a tool of hybrid war, an extremely complex situation,” he pointed out, noting that there were many things to discuss in terms of bilateral cooperation and trade relations.
