Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Monday at the Maximos Mansion and they agreed that dialogue is the only path to bridging differences.

The Patriarch said that this meeting is an opportunity to congratulate Tsipras on his re-election in person and to wish his new government every success in its difficult task.

“In these difficult times, the prayers of the mother Church are with you for the success of your mission and the prosperity of the Greek people,” he added.

The prime minister welcomed the Patriarch by and thanked him for the meeting by saying that his presence was a great honour for the International Conference on “Religious and Cultural Pluralism and Peaceful Coexistence in the Middle East” organised by the foreign ministry, given “your own initiatives for interfaith dialogue in the Middle East and on a global scale”.

Tsipras noted that we all experience a time of great tension in the region surrounding Greece, which found itself in the midst of three overlapping crises: the economic crisis in Europe, the refugee crisis, and the generalised destabilisation, instability and conflict in the broader region.

“We believe that we will manage to cope and at the same time upgrade Greece’s role in the surrounding region,” he added, stressing that Greece did not want to be part of the problem but part of the solution.