Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis participated today at the 4th Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit, that was held in Odessa.
While addressing the Plenary Session of the Summit, Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated:
“Dear Volodymyr, dear colleagues, I’m very glad to be participating in this fourth Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit, together with our partners from Moldova and the Western Balkans. And it’s gratifying to see the continuation of this initiative which, as you probably remember, this format started in Athens in August 2023. And the 20th anniversary of the Thessaloniki Agenda seemed to be the right moment to renew our commitment to the EU perspective of our partners.
And I’m also doubly moved to visit for the second time the city of Odessa. This is a city that bears particular historical and cultural reference for Greece. This is essentially a city where the flame of the Greek independence lit. At the time, the slogan of those who envisioned our independence, dear Volodymyr, was “freedom or death”. And today Odessa is the symbolic city of the resistance of the Ukrainian people who are fighting for their freedom.
Let me also echo what Andrei said, what a moving tribute it was this morning when we visited and laid flowers in the Alley of the Heroes. A stark reminder that this war affects people in Ukraine every single day. And people die every single day fighting for their country’s independence, something we should never forget.
Let me again express my country’s solidarity to the Ukrainian people who these days are again suffering from massive Russian missile drone attacks against civilian targets. These attacks, and I think we need to repeat it at every instance, they blatantly violate international humanitarian law. From the very beginning we’ve made it very clear that you have an inherent right to defend yourself against Russian aggression.
And Greece will continue to support Ukraine, as we have done from the very beginning, diplomatically, politically, financially, militarily, humanitarily. Whatever we can do to work towards the end to this destruction and the suffering of your country. It’s up to you, only Ukraine should and will decide on accepting or rejecting any peace formula. And I think you have demonstrated very clearly that your intentions are genuinely genuine, unlike those of the other side.
And of course, right now we should all work towards an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as a first step towards a just and viable peace. We will continue to put more pressure on Russia, support additional sanctions packages, and of course make the point, as was made by my colleagues, that this war is not just about Russia and Ukraine. It is about the rules-based international order. It is about not rewarding the aggressor by accepting an arrangement that essentially vindicates these aggressive behaviours.
Let me say one quick word on the future and on the importance of Odessa as a city that highlights future restructuring and connectivity projects, because we need to think also about the future, not just the present. I would envision Odessa to be at the one end of an ambitious comprehensive connectivity project that would start in the port of Alexandroupoli and move through Varna, Costanza and finally reach Odessa.
This is a project that could be proposed for EU funding. It would include transport, rail, electricity, gas, pipelines. And it would be a project that would provide an additional connectivity corridor for Ukraine, much faster one than transporting your goods by sea. And would also send a clear and tangible vision of how your integration with the European Union could make a real difference for the people in Ukraine.
Let me just conclude by saying that since we’re all gathered here, also neighbours and friends from the Western Balkans, that Greece will continue to be one of the most vocal and steadfast supporters of the enlargement process and of the European integration. We will always stand ready to do our part in providing any expertise, dear Volodymyr, or technical support with regard to the candidates alignment with the EU.
Again, thank you so much for taking the initiative to host us in this lovely and historical city of Odessa”.
Subsequently, the leaders of the countries participating in the Summit held a joint press conference. Responding to a question on European defense cooperation, EU defense funding programs, and the participation of Ukraine and other third countries, the Prime Minister noted:
“Thank you for the question. I think it is widely understood within Europe and certainly around the European Council that the invasion of Russia into Ukraine was a brutal geopolitical awakening, a necessity to take control of our own security and an imperative to spend more collectively on our European defence. I don’t think I would be exaggerating if I were to say that before the war in Ukraine we were almost sleepwalking towards military irrelevance, if you look at how much we were spending collectively on defence.
Now we have a new initiative by the European Union, the ReArm Initiative, which essentially has two components. It gives us the ability to spend more at the national level by triggering the national escape clause without this affecting our expenditure benchmarks. And of course, there is also the SAFE instruments, which provides loans for investments in European defence, but also fosters cooperation and collaboration with other countries, especially candidate countries to the European Union.
We see in Ukraine a strong partner in terms of building our future European security infrastructure. It is no secret that Ukraine has developed tremendous capabilities through this very hard fought and bloody war. And I think that there will be significant opportunities for further cooperation between member states and Ukraine in the defence sector, beyond supporting Ukraine in the short term in order to help it defend itself.
But when we talk about SAFE and other candidate countries or other countries that could participate in this scheme, it seems sort of obvious to me that whoever would want to have access to European funding would need at least some alignment with the European Common Foreign and Defence Policy. Because at the end of the day, this is an instrument which was devised in order to protect Europe as a whole and to create a new European security architecture”.
During the Summit, the Prime Minister had a private meeting with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while earlier he visited Shevchenko Park together with the other leaders and laid a wreath at the Alley of the Heroes.
