Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Wednesday at the Maximos Mansion and discussed the alarming developments in the Middle East, among other issues.

Mitsotakis thanked Bartholomew for the solidarity the head of the Orthodox Church expressed with the victims of the recent natural disasters in Greece. “Thank you again for your messages of support and love in the very difficult last month of natural disasters,” the Prime Minister said, noting that the Ecumenical Patriarch was among the first to have spoken about the consequences of the climate crisis.

During the meeting, developments in the Middle East were discussed with the PM expressing his concern, among other things, about the Christian presence in the Holy Land and informed the Ecumenical Patriarch that the government has been in contact with the Israeli authorities to protect the St. Porphyrius Monastery in Gaza from attacks by the Israeli Armed Forces.

Bartholomew briefed the Prime Minister on the issues of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. For his part, Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his support for the social and charitable work of the Patriarchate.