Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met, today, at Maximos Mansion, with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who is paying his first official visit to Greece.
The meeting took place in a positive atmosphere, indicative of the strong interest of both sides in further deepening the already close bilateral relations and expanding the dynamically developing Greek-Saudi cooperation, which was also confirmed during the visit of Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Riyadh, in October 2021.
In this context, the establishment of the Supreme Strategic Cooperation Council (SCSC) of the two countries was officially instituted with the signing of a relevant agreement, which consolidates the strategic relationship of the two countries and the systematic promotion of bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest.
The Prime Minister underlined the importance of the ECM (East to Med data Corridor) project, the undersea and land data cable system that will connect Europe with Asia through Greece and Saudi Arabia and position Greece as a data gateway to the EU, connecting it, at the same time, to the Middle East and Asia.
He also had the opportunity to present to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia the initiatives undertaken by our country in order to become an energy hub that connects the wider region with European markets. In this context, the two leaders discussed the prospects for cooperation between the two countries in the field of “green energy”, as well as the possibilities of transferring electricity from Saudi Arabia to Europe through our country, which can become the “bridge” between the Middle East and Europe.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis pointed out to his interlocutor the new investment opportunities that Greece offers in tourism infrastructure, the real estate market, maritime transport and the logistics sector, while he stressed the significant investment opportunities in port infrastructure and the land transport network in Alexandroupolis. The two leaders also focused on the new prospects for cooperation in digital connectivity, with the transformation of the two countries into important regional data centers, due to their geographical location.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Mohammed bin Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud also discussed international and regional developments. The Prime Minister noted that Saudi Arabia is a stable partner with a particularly important role in the Gulf region and beyond.
After the Prime Minister’s private meeting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, extended talks between the two delegations followed. The meeting was attended, from the Greek side, by the Minister of Development and Investments, Adonis Georgiadis, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, the Minister of National Defense, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, the Minister of Citizen Protection, Takis Theodorikakos, the Minister of Culture and Sports, Lina Mendoni, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness, Kostas Fragogiannis, the Secretary General for International Economic Relations and Extroversion, Ioannis Smyrlis, the Director of the Prime Minister’s Diplomatic Office, Ambassador Anna-Maria Boura, the Ambassador of Greece to Saudi Arabia Alexis Konstantopoulos, the National Security Adviser, Thanos Dokos, the Head of the Prime Minister’s Financial Office Alexis Patelis and the Alternative Government Spokesperson Aristotelia Peloni.
The delegations’ meeting was followed by the signing and exchange of agreements between the two sides in the following areas: establishment of a Supreme Strategic Cooperation Council (SCSC), energy, military cooperation, bilateral investments, scientific and technological cooperation, health, crime fighting, culture and sports, technical cooperation in the fields of standardization and quality, cooperation in archives and records management.
In addition, in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, the representatives of Mena Hub (STC), TTSA, PPC and CYTA signed the agreement for the construction of “the East to Med data Corridor” (EMC) undersea data cable.
