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Stylianides: A new ‘maritime’ Egnatia will open up new prospects

Shipping and Island Policy Minister Christos Stylianides on Tuesday expressed his certainty that as things improve in Greece and the city of Thessaloniki, this will also benefit North Macedonia, while addressing the Southeast Connectivity Forum.
He claimed that both countries have interests in common, adding: “That’s why we will strive to resolve all the problems and move forward, aiming to help our peoples increase their prosperity and to be an area that the rest of world will see as a region of stability”.

Speaking in Thessaloniki, in the forum organised by SGT Tsomokos with the Thessaloniki Port Authority as strategic partner, Stylianides said that Greece and the whole region should be, and will be, involved in the reconstruction of both the Middle East, on a peaceful basis, as well as Ukraine. “The ports of northern Greece will play a very important role and Greece will be upgraded at geostrategic level,” he added.
He pointed out that the EU is perhaps the largest market in the world, on which the European model relies not only to survive, but also to maintain its crucial geopolitical role as a mild power.

“I think that connectivity as a concept can be more applicable by going through the Western Balkans, just to connect the big single market (of the EU) to a bigger one, including countries in the pre-accession stage. This means a lot for Greece and Thessaloniki and other ports,” he stressed, also referring to what he called the ‘maritime’ Egnatia created by northern Greek ports and the influence Greece has had in advancing key connections, such as the trans-European networks from the Baltic Sea, to the margins of Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Thessaloniki, Kavala, Alexandroupolis and eventually Limassol in Cyprus, and from Poland to Thessaloniki. “These open up not just opportunities, but highways of prospects, so that we can help the Western Balkans to be Europeanised, but also see Thessaloniki and Greece as an enviable hub.”

The minister announced that he was recently invited by the Turkish Transport Minister for a discussion on maritime issues, which proves that Greece’s powerful role in global shipping is recognised and that “everyone wants to have our country as an interlocutor”. He added that Greece’s extroversion, which has always maintained a logic of universality, must be kept strong against introversion and misery, and pointed out that there is no disadvantage in terms of the country’s international presence. “We do not overestimate anyone. We do not underestimate anyone. But we find a convergence of interests,” he said.

Stylianides described Greece as a safe haven and a country of stability, which can discuss the necessary hubs, ports, roads and trains, and whose European dimension also enables it to become a reliable partner in talks. As he said, he had the opportunity to see this personally in the difficult handling of the incident, with the Houthi attack on a Greek ship in the Red Sea, in which – thanks to Greece’s contribution – the environmental disaster was avoided.

“It showed the credibility of Greece in talking to all the key players in the region (…) Despite my modesty, I think what happened was one of the miracles, and it was based on Greek involvement. We are a great maritime power, but we do not shy away from entering minefields because we have credibility and capabilities to handle difficult things. With those outside the EU we are reliable partners and interlocutors and I hope that very soon we will hav developments that will bring us further in this direction of cooperation.