Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit praised Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday, on the sidelines of the first European Union-Arab League summit, held at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Aboul Gheit told Tsipras that he had “done great work during the most difficult times for the economy,” and praised him for Greece's results, especially in the economic field, repeating the term "difficult" four times to underline the importance of everything that has been done.
"You showed the courage and character of the Greeks," the Secretary General of the Arab League said, referring to the Prime Minister.
Tsipras will also have a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
"Greece is constantly seeking to be a catalyst and bridge for Euro-Arab dialogue," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said late on Sunday during a speech at the first European Union-Arab League summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The Prime Minister explained that Greece is "a country with strong historical, cultural, economic and religious ties to the Arab world ... a country that - along with Cyprus - is in the North African-Europe-Middle East triangle and has experienced the repercussions of the crises in security and migration but has also identified the great opportunities opening up for transport, economy, tourism and restructuring of the energy map."
It was also a country, the Prime Minister said, "with tens of thousands of Arab citizens and residents, with a people who did not hesitate to support the refugees who arrived in 2015-2016 as a country with stable positions in favour of peace and stability, a country that has upgraded its bilateral and trilateral relations (together with Cyprus) with Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon, and bilaterally with an extremely important country for the region - the UAE."
He also referred to the Rhodes Security Summit and the Conference on pluralism and religious tolerance that our country has organised, as well as supporting the important annual Euro-Arab Conferences in Athens.
The Prime Minister emphasised the need to broaden Euro-Arab cooperation, noting that "our relations must be multi-level."
