We are meeting here in Vilnius, while the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still raging a few hundred kilometres away. Therefore, it is now more necessary than ever to reaffirm the Alliance’s basic principles and values, and I want to welcome the decision, in principle, by Turkey and President Erdoğan to accept Sweden into the Alliance. And I wish, very soon and officially, that our friend Sweden will become the 32nd member of our Alliance.
I will also have the opportunity, as you know, to meet tomorrow in person with President Erdoğan, in our first meeting since our double election victory. I believe that both of us, with a strong popular mandate, can take a first step to restart the relations between Greece and Turkey.
As I have said many times, we are not condemned to live with Turkey in a constant climate of tension. We obviously have important differences. But we can agree that, on the basis of good neighbourly relations and our respect for International Law, we will draw up a road map so that we can resolve our most important geopolitical dispute, which is the delimitation of maritime zones, i.e. the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and the continental shelf, in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Α positive climate has been forged in recent months in the relations between our two countries and I hope and look forward that we can build on this positive climate and make some important steps forward, which will obviously be to the benefit of both our peoples.
