In reference to Donald Trump’s post, which reposted an interview with him in Breitbart News, the Minister of Environment and Energy, Stavros Papastavrou, spoke on Monday morning, stressing that “Mitsotakis’ energy policy is being recognized by the US President himself.”

“Essentially, it recognizes that he is the first European prime minister who spoke with realism. Yes to the green transition, but not at any cost,” Mr. Papastavrou added on ERT, noting that “we are a country with a prime minister who prioritized the national interest because energy is geopolitical power.”

“The US President, a few hours after returning from China, along with other posts, says well done to Greece and Mitsotakis,” Stavros Papastavrou also said.

When asked about the hydrocarbon explorations, Mr. Papastavrou noted that “if one year ago, when Kyriakos Mitsotakis stepped on the gas regarding hydrocarbon exploration, it made sense, imagine now how much more of a one-way street it is for our country to investigate commercially exploitable deposits.”

As he said, “we are running twice as fast now. Our goal is for the first exploratory drilling to take place in the first quarter of 2027, possibly even earlier. We are making all regulatory actions so that the drill can enter as quickly as possible.”

In response to a question about the expected results, the Minister of Environment stated that “the consortium speaks of a potential deposit of 270 billion cubic meters. The consortium estimates that it can yield 10 billion from block 2. Imagine what this means for the country as a whole. This is the first time we are going down to a depth of 4,500 meters; we are going where we believe there is wealth for the country.”

Closing, he noted that “all these actions, carried out with determination and always within the framework of international law, understandably do not make Turkey happy.”