The ambassadors of 22 countries that helped Greece manage the summer 2023 wildfires were thanked by Climate Crisis & Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias at a special event on Tuesday, ANA reports.
Welcoming the ambassadors to the ministry, Kikilias proposed that a workshop be held on the significance of conclusions derived from the experience of exchanging know-how and best practices in dealing with natural disasters.
Referring to the weather extremities registered in Greece this past summer, the minister noted that humidity levels in the country at that time were lower than 10%. In conjunction with prolonged heatwaves, this situation generated "extreme weather conditions for 16 consecutive days in July and then again over many days in August."
While Greece "was battling it out at the massive wildfire in Dadia (Evros, northern Greece), "Daniel storm arrived from Europe, forcing us, with no time leeway whatsoever, to reorganize our strength and adjust to fighting against floods, just as we were doing against the fires."
The following ambassadors attended the event:
Albania: Joana Zhonga
Bulgaria: Valentin Poriazov
Czech Republic: Jakub Karfik
Croatia: Aleksandar Sunko
Cyrpus: Stavros Avgoustidis
Egypt: Omar Amer Youssef
France: Alexandre Diebolt
Germany: Hans-Günter Löffler
Italy: Susanna Schlein
Israel: Noam Katz
Jordan: Zuhair Ensour
Lebanon: Ghady El Khoury
Malta: Karl Littlejohn
Poland: Artur Lompart
Romania: Mioara-Florina Pitut
Serbia: Dejan Mackovic
Slovakia: Marcela Hanusova
Spain: Carles Maria Casajuana Palet
Sweden: Johan Borgstam
Switzerland: Stefan Estermann
Türkiye: Cagatay Erciyes
USA: George James Tsunis
