Dendias: Greece wants to boost relations with Latin America and the Caribbean

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias stressed his country’s strong will for the further enhancement of the friendly relations with Latin America and the Caribbean when addressing the event “Latin America and Caribbean Day” on Monday.

The event is organised for second consecutive year under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry with the participation of the Ambassadors of the Latin American and Caribbean countries represented in Greece.

As Dendias said “this initiative reaffirms the historic ties with the countries of the area and is laying the foundations for the deepening of the political cooperation.”

“We are still far away but we have developed strong and resilient ties of friendship and solidarity,” he continued.

The Greek minister said that Greece has applied for observer to the Sica organisation.

“Our common characteristics are a lot “the respect to the idea of freedom, the struggles for the protection of the human rights. Our political and diplomatic alignment at the international fora is obvious and may extend even further because it is based on our common respect to the international law.

“Greece as active member of EU remains focused on the targets of sustainable growth in the context of the two future conferences for the Oceans in Panama and in Greece respectively and we have already agreed to coordinate our actions for an issue that concerns us all.

“The protection of the environment and of the sea environment,” Dendias underlined.

Finally, he said that “Greece shows and will always show its solidarity with the countries of Latin America”.

Meanwhile, Dendias, Alternate Foreign Affairs Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, and National Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos will pay an official visit to Cairo on Tuesday.

Panagiotopoulos is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Aeronautical & Maritime Search & Rescue Sectors with his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Zaki, which will be attended by both Dendias and Varvitsiotis.

Statements to the press by the Greek and Egyptian ministers will follow at around 14:15, Athens time, before a working lunch.

Dendias and Panagiotopoulos will then meet separately with their Egyptian counterparts.

Varvitsiotis is expected to sign an agreement on seasonal workers in the agricultural sector with the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Ambassador Ihab Nasr.

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