PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired the Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defence (KYSEA) which met today in Athens with the ongoing Turkish provocations and the immigration crisis being at the centre of talks.

Shortly before the end of the meeting, the Minister of National Defence, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, left the Maximos Palace, headed for Brussels, in order to participate in the meeting of the NATO Defence Ministers. At 17:00, Mr Panagiotopoulos will meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is notorious for keeping an even distance even in obvious cases of threats and violations by Turkey.

Immigration and Turkish provocations

The two issues that dominated the agenda were immigration and Turkish provocations on a daily basis, after the recent illegal Turkish-Libyan agreement for the exploitation of the Libyan EEZ by Turkish companies. The progress of arms procurement programs was also discussed.

In the past few days, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias engaged in a diplomatic marathon briefing international partners and allies about the new developments, after his visit to Cairo, where he discussed the scenarios in detail with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry.

The Minister of Citizen Protection, Takis Theodorikakos, gave an update on the progress for expanding and upgrading the Evros fence and means of border security, as well as the sea routes that traffickers use more and more often, something that was clearly seen with the shipwreck in Kythira. Also discussed was dealing with migrant smuggling rings that are intertwined with NGOs, which play a suspicious role.

The Minister of Immigration and now a permanent member of KYSEA Notis Mitarakis informed the attendees about the issue, with an emphasis on upgrading security intelligence around this hybrid threat, although so far the country does not seem to be facing a problem of large migrant inflows and lack of hosting facilities, given that many structures have been closed or are operating far from their maximum capacity.

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