Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Nikos Christodoulides are due to make joint statements following their meetings in Egypt, in El Alamein.
Earlier, the Prime Minister met with Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, followed immediately by an informal trilateral meeting with Nikos Christodoulides, at a time of conflicts and geopolitical realignments that make stable relations in the Eastern Mediterranean even more important.
Before the trip, the Prime Minister spoke of the “extremely dense web of relations” that Greece has developed in North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf countries. These relations, he stressed, have been built to a large extent through personal trust with the leaderships of these countries.
He also described the role Greece can now play as a “bridge” between Europe, the Middle East and the Gulf countries.
The Mecca Agreement also falls within this context. Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that it is a development that “is worth monitoring,” while making clear that it “does not change the central priority of Greek foreign policy.”
He was even more explicit regarding a possible rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Turkey: “The fact that the Mecca Agreement may have potentially brought Saudi Arabia and Turkey closer does not mean that we automatically distance ourselves. Foreign policy is much more complex than that.”
The next step will come soon in Riyadh. The Prime Minister has already announced a visit to Saudi Arabia, aimed at reaffirming the strategic relationship between the two countries.
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