Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met this morning, at Maximos Mansion, with the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is on an official visit to Greece.
During the meeting, they discussed international developments, the prospects for Greek-German relations, as well as the strengthening of Greek-German cooperation within the framework of the EU.
At the beginning of the meeting the Prime Minister and the President of the Federal Republic of Germany had the following dialogue:
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Mr President, it’s a real pleasure to welcome you to Athens. I think it’s a very, very important visit that I think highlights the fact that Greek-German relations are moving into a different era, leaving behind us a turbulent period of crisis.
As you know, Greece is doing much, much better economically. I think this is a great opportunity to talk about the future, what we can do together also as European partners faced with big issues, competitiveness, migration. We need to work together to resolve those.
But I would also like to thank you personally, but also as a Cretan, for the fact that you chose tomorrow to visit my home island, Crete, and to visit Candanos, to recognise through your presence the Nazi atrocities that took place on the island during the Second World War. I think it is a very important gesture.
As you know, for Greece, the question of reparations, and in particular, the forced occupation loan, these issues are still very much alive, and we hope that at some point we will resolve them. But I would like to place particular value on your presence in Greece, in Crete. I think this is a gesture of great importance to us.
So thank you again for your visit. Looking forward to a very productive path towards further strengthening our bilateral relations.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier: Thank you for your kind invitation, thank you for your time, Mr. Prime Minister. I’m happy to be back in Greece. And just for saying, I remember the easy days in our bilateral relations, and there were some difficult days, I remember in the same way.
Therefore, I’m very happy that Greece is back on an economic path of growth, and that that is feeding our bilateral economic exchange, that the German companies are still not only present but investing here in Greece. We were just visiting a site, Boehringer – Ingelheim, yesterday here close to Athens.
So therefore, I hope that our bilateral relations, not only the economic relations, but also cultural exchange and people-to-people exchange, will grow in the next years within a democratic Europe, which is representing freedom worldwide and which will be a place to live for the people around.
