Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, and Nicos Anastasiades sign joint declaration (video)

The 9th Tripartite Summit is taking place in Athens

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, and Nicos Anastasiades signed a Joint Declaration that marks their common positions of the developments in the region and the wide range of cooperation of the three countries, especially in the field of energy and environment.

The three leaders discussed important issues, such as developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Cyprus issue, Libya in the run-up to the December 24th elections, Syria, and Lebanon.

The Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his statements during the joint press cnference stressed that the cooperation between Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt covers many sectors, while as of today, two memoranda of cooperation have been added regarding energy and expatriates. The Prime Minister focused especially on energy, saying that in our time all three countries are upgrading in the region.

“We discussed other fronts,” said Mitsotakis, citing the example of the pandemic and pointing out that Greece donated 250,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

The PM went on to say that there is a common understanding of the three countries regarding the condemnation of Turkey’s provocative behaviour. “Ankara’s leadership does not seem to understand the messages of the times,” he said, adding that what Turkey was doing was undermining peace in the region.

On his part, the Cypriot President, Nicos Anastasiades, noted that in the context of the Tripartite talks he had the opportunity to brief his two colleagues about the Cyprus Issue, the intransigence of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots, the violation of territory in Famagusta, etc.

Anastasiades spoke about revisionism from Turkey which extends to the Aegean, Syria, and other areas, under the doctrine of the Blue Homeland. “The position of two independent states is unacceptable from the Turkish Cypriot side,” said the Cypriot president.

Anastasiades stressed that the only solution is dialogue and noted that Turkey will be more helped if it contributes to the solution on the basis of principles and not to revisionism. “Turkey cannot cooperate with the countries of the eastern Mediterranean and is the only one who disturbs the peace for its own reasons.”