Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Your Majesty, Your Excellency, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Athens for the third Summit between our countries. Greece, Cyprus and Jordan have established a very solid tripartite partnership.
Since the 1st Summit, in 2018, significant progress – Mr President – has been achieved. We have expanded and deepened our cooperation in a wide range of sectors.
As you know, your Majesty, Mr President, this is a very special year for Greece, as we celebrate 200 years from the Greek War of Independence. But this is also a year of great significance also for Jordan, marking the centennial of Jordan under the leadership of the Hashemite dynasty. On this occasion, I would like to congratulate you, Your Majesty, on behalf of the people of Greece on this very very important national milestone.
Today we are determined to enhance our partnership, to strengthen our cooperation and to further advance our coordination in the political, economic and security fields.
Our partnership has never lost its dynamic, not even during the Covid pandemic. We managed to keep our cooperation going and to establish numerous working groups.
In light of the unprecedented challenges and the enormous impact the Covid-19 pandemic poses on our social, economic but also on our healthcare systems, it is our firm belief that we should further accelerate this coordination and promote even more synergies in areas of common interest, in order to sustain this momentum and build up on this very successful partnership.
We will have this opportunity during our discussions to touch upon a variety of issues, including EU-Jordan relations and the way Greece and Cyprus can contribute to their enhancement.
We will also have the opportunity to discuss in detail regional issues of common interest, such as the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, but also in Libya and in Syria, in the Middle East in general.
And of course, on the Cyprus issue, we will have a chance to discuss the recent deplorable developments that – as you know – run contrary to the Security Council’s Resolutions, also in light of the very important Presidential Statement of the Security Council of July 23rd.
To conclude, let me repeat that today’s Summit reflects the commitment of our countries to promote peace, stability and prosperity in our wider region. It will give us the opportunity to pave the way for an accelerated coordination of our actions to the benefit of our peoples and to the benefit of the broader region.
Your Majesty, Mr President, welcome again to Athens. It is a real pleasure to have this opportunity to host you.
Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein: Your excellency. Thank you very much for the most gracious welcome. I am delighted to be back here in Athens to see my dear brother the President – as I said when we just met minutes ago, a dear and an old friend of mine and of Jordan. And again to take the opportunity to congratulate Greece on a very important year as you said, your 200-year anniversary.
I am really delighted that we have an opportunity to be back here on a Trilateral Summit. And this is – as you said – a partnership that continues to expand, since we had our first meeting in 2018. And I believe – as you alluded to – this is an opportunity to continue the warm relationship and enhance our cooperation and progress over the past two Summits that we have had.
Unfortunately we have not had the ability to visit each other because of the pandemic, I am so glad that this is an opportunity for us to launch the “entre-nous” ability for us to be able to see each other.
And I think Covid was a challenge that really reminded us how interconnected our nations are and the importance to enhance obviously our cooperation.
We look forward to see how we –us three countries– can tap into many opportunities – whether it is trade, food security, tourism, energy, agriculture, water, the environment, health care, investment, ICT, as well as what I really think has a relationship between our three countries in culture and education.
We are nations that share the Eastern Mediterranean and I think that we will continue to play a vital role in looking at wider cooperation not only in Eastern Mediterranean but also global cooperation because there is so much potential.
I would also like to capitalize on the special partnership that we have had with Iraq and Egypt and the synergy of those countries bringing things to the table. We have discussed this quite often.
And as you know we had the fourth trilateral summit between Egypt and Iraq and Jordan. And from that respect I hope that these meetings today will allow us to also discuss those two countries as part of the greater regional integration.
As you mentioned, both the role that Cyprus has played and you have played in looking at the framework through the European Union for us is extremely important and we are very gratified that always – I know that my brother and Greece have always spoken on behalf of Jordan but also the countries that are part of this Organization.
Obviously we will be discussing many challenges that you have mentioned. But again we were concerned several months ago on the escalations between the Palestinians and Israelis. And the role that we can all play, to try and bring peoples together to relaunch peace negotiations.
Again I know that with both your governments we talked about the challenges of Jerusalem. The important role that Jordan plays not only in looking and safeguarding Islamic holy sites but also the role of Christianity in Jerusalem and in the West Bank which is also vital for the unity of all of us together.
Gentlemen, I look forward to today. We have a lot of work together. I am just glad to meet you sir and have the ability to see my old friend. I wish you all the best. It is going to be a very interesting day.
Nicos Anastasiades: Thank you, your Majesty. My dear brother. Excellency. My dear Kyriakos.
Allow me to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to the Prime Minister of Greece, my dear friend Kyriakos, for hosting our third trilateral summit and for the warm welcome and gracious hospitality extended to our delegation. Today’s meeting clearly reflects the importance we attach to further expanding and deepening our synergies to the benefit of our country’s peoples and the region as a whole. In this regard, the decision to establish the permanent secretariat in Nicosia highlights the importance we attach in coordinating, developing and enhancing cooperation in order to fulfil the goals of our strategic partnership.
To this end, we look forward to relaunching sectoral meetings that were halted due to the pandemic so as to proceed with concrete synergies as identified in the joint statement in the fields of, amongst others, culture, trade – as you have mentioned, Your Majesty – investments, tourism, security, energy, education and digital transformation. During today’s meeting, we will also discuss pressing regional issues such as the Middle East process and the situation in Cyprus, Iraq, Libya and Syria. I have no doubt that we will once again reiterate our joint commitment to work together in order to achieve our common goals of promoting peace, stability, security and prosperity in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
As we also share the same commitment to counter the common threats of terrorism and violent extremism, we all agree in enhancing our cooperation, including through the key platform, the “Aqaba Process” that Your Majesty established. We will also discuss the EU-Jordan relationship during which both Cyprus and Greece, will once again ensure that our countries will continue advocating to push forward the EU – Jordan partnership priorities so as to promote common objectives and address shared challenges. As it is expected, I will inform my counterparts on the latest developments on the Cyprus problem, particularly as regards their very recent illegal announcements and announcements that have been strongly condemned, by the UN Security Council, as well as by the European Union and the international community, calling for its immediate reversal.
Taking this opportunity, please allow me to express again my sincere appreciation to His Majesty, for Jordan’s principled stance on our efforts to reach a viable and functional settlement in line with the UN parameters. We all wish and know we can count on your solidarity at critical times like this. Similarly, dear Kyriakos, dear Prime Minister, the Greek government and the Greek people have always stood shoulder to shoulder with us.
On behalf of all Cypriots, I reiterate our deep gratitude. Once again, thank you, dear Kyriakos, for the invitation, and I look forward to the further and fruitful discussion to follow. Thank you very much.
