“Any unilateral activity seeking to implement the intentions of a single country is doomed to fail,” emphasized Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis during a discussion on Thursday with analyst Konstantinos Filis, held at the Energy Transition Summit organized by the Financial Times and the newspaper Kathimerini.

“If any country chooses to take unilateral measures which, under international law, should be organized on a multilateral or bilateral basis, those measures only have domestic validity and no international effect,” he stated, responding to questions regarding reports that Turkiye is preparing legislation within the framework of the “ Blue Homeland” doctrine.

“In order to achieve sustainable peace, we must cooperate,” he added.

He noted that there are many ways for Greece to respond, but stressed that Greece prefers to act rather than react. Greece is a member of the European Union and plays a central role within the United Nations, he pointed out, so there are multiple international fora where it can express objections, if necessary.

“We have made significant efforts with Turkiye, and I believe we have achieved substantial progress. It would be positively wasteful to have a setback,” he said, adding: “Greece will always remain a very strong and committed supporter of peace and prosperity.”

Regarding Turkiye, he explained that a fundamental decision was taken by the Greek prime minister three years ago to redefine relations with the neighboring country.

“We have some tangible results, including a significant reduction in violations of Greek airspace, as well as a dramatic decrease in the absolute number of illegal migrant entries into Greece. We all understand that there is one major dispute that makes things even more difficult, namely the delimitation of maritime zones, especially the continental shelf and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). It is my conviction that if we do not solve this issue, there can be no truly long-term and sustainable peace and prosperity. Therefore, we are trying to work on it.”

“We have not yet agreed on the scope of this discussion, but I believe it is important to keep communication channels open,” he added.

“My vision is a neighborhood of peace and calm,” he stated. “The same applies to Libya, where over the last two years we faced significant difficulties in our relations, but we have managed to establish a very functional relationship with both sides in Libya.”

Referring to international developments, the Greek foreign minister stressed that “the architecture of international security as we knew it no longer exists, and we must reconsider our fundamental assumptions.” However, he added that “Greece serves as a bridge between North and South, East and West. Its geographical position is extremely critical. But also the role we are called upon to play is indeed crucial.”

“ Over the last three years, we have worked very hard to upgrade our international relations with neighboring powers, but not only with them,” he noted. “ We are pursuing a high-level strategic policy regarding our diplomatic presence. Greece seeks to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”

Regarding international affairs, he emphasised his belief in the importance of a rules-based and coherent policy.

“Everyone understands that the landscape on the international stage is now completely different, especially after the new administration in the United States came to power, which changed the overall mindset of international relations,” he said. “ We are seeing a much more active role by the U.S., accompanied by a simultaneous downgrading of the importance of international organizations.”

At the same time, however, he argued that “the American elections acted as a wake-up call for the world and for Europe, and I always try to see the positive side. There is now much greater awareness and understanding that Europe truly needs an autonomous strategy, which will obviously still be based on the postwar international architecture and transatlantic relations. These remain the foundation, I believe, of global security, but at the same time a more autonomous stance must be developed. We have been discussing Europe’s strategic autonomy for several years, but now is the moment to actually implement it.”

Gerapetritis emphasized that Greece is a key player in discussions about Europe’s future.
“We firmly believe that we must reshape the burden-sharing approach we have followed until now regarding defense. We have the unfortunate privilege, I would say, of already spending a significant portion of our budget on defense, so for us the adjustment will not be painful.”
“It is clear that this is a new era for Greece, a new era for Europe, and we are absolutely ready to become an important part of this new world,” he concluded.