“Any unilateral activity that seeks to implement a country’s intentions is doomed to fail,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis.
He made the remark during a discussion with conference Energy Transition Summit organized by the Financial Times and Kathimerini.
“If any country chooses to unilaterally take measures which, according to international law, should be organized at the multilateral or bilateral level, these have only domestic validity and have no international application,” he stressed, answering questions about publications bearing the Turkey preparing a bill under the doctrine of the “Blue Homeland”. “In order to have a sustainable peace, we need to work together”, he added.
We prefer to act rather than react
He said there are many ways for Greece to react to this, but noted that we prefer to act rather than react. Greece is a member of the European Union and is in the core of the United Nations, there are many forums to express possible protests.
“We have made significant efforts with Turkey and I think we have made significant progress, and it would be an absolute waste to have a setback,” he said. “Greece will always be a very strong and ardent supporter of peace and prosperity.”
He said that “the new era of foreign policy is characterized by the fact that we cannot make any meaningful predictions because there are so many parameters that are completely unclear and vulnerable. What you are actually doing is formulating answers for all possible scenarios. And that is exactly what we are doing now with regard to the Turkish legislation on the legalization of the Blue Homeland’.”
“International law must simply take precedence over our domestic intentions, purposes or visions. And that is how our bilateral relations work. That means we have to take into account the law of the sea. Turkey has deliberately refrained from signing and ratifying UNCLOS, but these provisions are part of international law, which means that they are essentially binding on all states, both signatories and non-signatories,” he said.
Greece is a leading power in the Eastern Mediterranean
He stressed the importance of maintaining good neighbourly relations with all neighbours, not only with regard to Turkey, but also Libya and the Western Balkans. Greece is also taking a number of initiatives in all these regions, as a mediator, but also as a leading power in the Eastern Mediterranean.
As regards Turkey, he noted that a fundamental decision was taken with the Prime Minister three years ago to try to redefine our relationship with Turkey.
“We have some tangible results, including a significant reduction in the number of violations of Greek airspace, but also a huge reduction in the absolute number of illegal immigrants entering Greece. We all understand that there is an important difference that makes things even more difficult, which is the delimitation of maritime zones, and in particular the continental shelf and the EEZ. It is my belief that if we do not solve this problem, there can be no real long-term and sustainable peace and prosperity. Therefore, we are trying to work on it.”
“We have not agreed on the scope of this discussion, but I think it is important to keep open channels of communication,” he added.
“My vision is a neighborhood of peace and tranquility,” he said. “The same applies to Libya, where over the past two years, we have faced significant difficulties in our relations, but we have established a very functional relationship with both sides of Libya.”
At the same time, he noted, Greece is actively participating in the debate on the pre-accession phase of the Western Balkans to the European Union. “We have taken a number of initiatives, including the Delphi Declaration, in which we express our commitment to the European course of the Western Balkans. Greece is now everywhere,” he said.
Now is the time to truly implement Europe’s strategic autonomy
Referring to international developments, the Greek Foreign Minister stressed that “the international security architecture as we knew it no longer exists and we need to rethink our fundamental assumptions”, but added that “Greece is the bridge between North and South, East and West. Its geographical position is extremely critical. But also the role we are called upon to play is indeed critical.”
“In the last three years, we have worked very hard to upgrade our international relations with neighbouring powers, but not only with them,” he said. “We have been pursuing a high-policy strategy in terms of our diplomatic presence. Greece seeks to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.”
He noted that he is not a strong advocate of the balancing policy in terms of international affairs, as it may yield some temporary positive results, but in principle what matters is a rules-based policy, a coherent policy.
“Everyone understands that the landscape on the international scene is completely different now, especially after the new administration in the United States took power, which has changed the overall mentality of international relations,” he said. “We see a much more active role for the US, with a simultaneous downgrading of the importance of international organisations.”
On the other hand, however, he said, “the US election has acted as a wake-up call for the world and for Europe, and I always want to see the positive side. There is a much greater awareness and consciousness that Europe really needs an autonomous strategy, obviously based on the post-war international architecture and transatlantic relations. These still form the basis, I think, for global security, but at the same time a more autonomous stance needs to be developed. We have been talking about Europe’s strategic autonomy for several years, but now is the time to actually implement it.”
Gerapetritis stressed that Greece is a key player in the debate on the future of Europe. “We strongly believe that we need to reshape the burden-sharing approach we have had so far in terms of defence. We have the negative, I would say, privilege of spending part of our budget on defence, so for us the adjustment will not be painful.”
“It is clear that for Greece it is a new era, for Europe it is a new era, and we are absolutely ready to be an important part of this new world,” he concluded.
