Welcome to the weekly round-up of news by Kathimerini English Edition. There were several developments on Greece’s diplomatic front this week, with several high-level meetings taking place.
Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis met with Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah of the Government of National Unity of Libya and acting Foreign Minister Al Taher Salem al-Baour in Tripoli on Monday, with the two sides agreeing to advance discussions on the delimitation of a continental shelf and exclusive economic zones.
“We decided jointly to activate the Joint Committee, which will deal with critical issues, reassess agreements that have been signed and propose new agreements”, said the minister.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Athens, with tensions in the Middle East being at the heart of the discussion. Following the meeting, the two leaders agreed to deepen and expand bilateral cooperation in areas including trade, energy, connectivity, defense, agri-food products, culture, and education.
However, an agreement between Greece and Ukraine to co-produce unmanned surface vehicle (USV) maritime drones has run into difficulties. Specifically, complications have arisen at the last minute over Kyiv’s demand that it retain a say over how the Greek armed forces would use the systems.
Greek officials insist that there cannot be control by a third party over the deployment and use of a military system, particularly during a military engagement. The issue is widely seen to be connected to a desire by Ukraine to balance its relationship with Turkey. Despite its working relationship with Moscow, Ankara remains one of the premier military powers in the Black Sea region and controls passage through the Straits.
This is just the latest chapter of a wider cooling of bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey. The visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, and the renewal of the French-Greek defensive agreement, was criticized in a statement released by the Turkish Ministry of Defense.
Namely, the ministry decried President Macron’s statements as “not consistent with the principles of alliance and solidarity”, and added that any military cooperation against Turkey “has no chance of success”.
Spotlight
- Ahead of his all-but-certain return at the head of a new political party, Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras published a long manifesto outlining how, what he defines as the main groups of progressive politics, can and must be unified. Namely, the new party’s goal will be “bringing together the three chief tendencies in the contemporary Left: Social Democrats, the Radical Left and Greens” as the “social majority of progressive citizens is currently seeking its political representation”. The manifesto urges existing political parties in the progressive space to put aside any differences and perceived ideological hang-ups. Indicatively, he notes that Social Democrats should “depart from the rationale of management” and join the radical Left in fighting inequality and corruption, while the latter grouping should formulate “realistic and practically applicable” policies on a new production model and institutional reforms. Greens, the manifesto argued, “should join the core of a new growth model that would combine sustainability, energy security and social justice”.
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