Mitsotakis: Exploratory contacts only for maritime zones

The Greek-Turkish, the pandemic and the migration were the two topics that dominated the press conference provided by the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa after their meeting at the Prime Minister's Mansion in Lisbon.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked the Portugal for its active support to the enterprises of frontex in Aegean Sea and referred to the conversation he had with the chief, a Portuguese captain.

He further stated that migratory flows have decreased significantly in the last year but stressed that we need more European assistance.

The Pact on Asylum and Migration is a very important tool, he stressed, underlining the need for greater European solidarity, which he said there are many ways to express. At this point he thanked Portugal for being one of the first countries to accept unaccompanied refugee children.

Antonio Costa referred extensively to the cooperation between the two countries on migration.

«For us it is an important principle that the responsibility of guarding the external borders is not the responsibility of specific states, but belongs to all EU member states. The burden cannot fall only on the countries that are geographically host countries», he said, adding that it was an honour for Portugal that its Maritime Police had rescued 7,000 people at sea on the border with Turkey. «It is our duty,» he said.

The Portuguese Prime Minister also referred to the need for a a new pact on immigration.

The two leaders spoke about the need to strengthen economic relations between the two countries and exchanged views on the goal of recovery after the pandemic.

Antonio Costa said that the priority of the Portuguese presidency will be to strengthen economic cooperation with an emphasis on the social pillar and to open Europe to the world and said that vaccination is the key to recovery in Europe.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that this will be a six-month period of great challenges during which the epilogue of the pandemic and the prologue of the return to normality will be launched.

Referring to the Recovery Fund, referred to a huge European success and stressed the need for no delays in the disbursement of funds, something Antonio Costa emphatically agreed with.

«The success of the Portuguese presidency will be a success for Europe and a success for Greece», Mitsotakis stressed, declaring Greece's support for a country with which «we share important experiences, we are natural allies of the European South and we have gone through an economic crisis».

«We may have different ideological and political starting points but we meet on the common road to reforms with a social footprint. With our friend Antonio we have the same commitment to the truth and the same aversion to populism,» Mitsotakis said.

Referring to Greek-Turkish relations, the Prime Minister recalled that the High Representative of the EU President Josep Borel, has assumed responsibility on the instructions of the European Council so that the forthcoming March Council will have a full text on Europe's strategic options. «We look forward to a fruitful and productive relationship with the Turkey. It will be to its advantage to change policy. 2021 can be a better year for both Greek-Turkish and Euro-Turkish relations,» he said, noting that we are waiting for Turkey's formal invitation to restart exploratory contacts from where they stopped in 2016 on the maritime zones issue.

He also stated that he had been informed of today's statements in this regard Mevlut Cavusoglu. «The process is quite simple. The SGs set the date and then the two foreign ministries jointly announce the date. This has not been done. When in good time it is done we will be able to confirm it, there will be a specific date. I take it as positive that Turkey has expressed the will to start the process. The time has come to stop playing best man and sit down at the table and figure out a date. It will be a positive first step, but I would like to reiterate that consistency and continuity is needed.».

The Portuguese Prime Minister pointed out that the the solidarity of his country and the EU with Greece and Cyprus is clear, underlining that territorial integrity cannot be threatened. At the same time, he expressed the hope «that we will find another level of relations with Turkey».

Regarding the pandemic, the Prime Minister expressed the hope that in Greece we will be able to open more sectors, stating that decisions will be taken based on the data and that «this is how this case will go until we have more vaccinations» in combination with the improvement of the weather from April to May.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that every country has its own vaccination strategy and that «we have made progress and we will have more vaccines than we need.». He stressed that the agreement to buy vaccines in all countries at European level, despite the difficulties, is a European success.

«The most important priority is to move forward with the vaccination campaign,» said Antonio Costa, expressing the hope that vaccine production will be speeded up.

The Portuguese Prime Minister also announced that his country will this week announce measures very close to those taken last March.

In response to a question from APPE-MPA on retail and catering, Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed that the facts are changing and all countries are adjusting their strategy.

«So far the data is encouraging. The committee will meet every Thursday or Friday and make decisions every week or every two weeks. I'd like to hope that we'll do well. I will not anticipate the recommendations of the experts,» he said.

For his part, the Portuguese Prime Minister, after a question from a Portuguese journalist, said that it is most likely that schools in his country will continue to operate.

From the Greek side, the expanded contacts in the Portuguese capital were attended by the Deputy Foreign Minister Miltiades Varvitsiotis, the Member of Parliament and Secretary for International Relations of the New Democracy Tasos Hadjivassiliou, the Director of the Prime Minister's Diplomatic Office, Ambassador Eleni Surani, and the Ambassador of Greece to Portugal John Metaxas.