Addressing the Hand-over ceremony of the archives of Dimitrios Bitsios, diplomat and first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the post-junta period in the government of Konstantinos Karamanlis, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis emphasized the importance of highlighting and recognizing the work of Greek diplomats for their contribution to the successes of foreign policy and the need to enhance the funding of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At the ceremony -which was also attended by former Foreign Minister, Petros Molyviatis - Mr. Varvitsiotis noted that in 1974, while Dimitrios Bitsios was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ioannis Varvitsiotis was Deputy Foreign Minister, two decisions were taken that were inspired by Konstantinos Karamanlis and formed the basis of Greek foreign policy in the following decades. The first one concerns the proposal to refer the issue of the demarcation of the continental shelf between Greece and Türkiye to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the second is the request for the resumption of negotiations for Greece's accession to the European Economic Community. The Alternate Minister even quoted specific sections from a book by his father, Ioannis Varvitsiotis, titled "As I lived it", regarding his father’s excellent and daily cooperation and participation in the important meetings he had with Dimitrios Bitsios. In the same book, Dimitrios Bitsios' contribution to the normalization of political life is also mentioned, as he was the author of the Papandreou-Kanellopoulos agreement in 1966 when he was political advisor to the former King Constantine.
The Alternate Minister emphasized the significance of highlighting Greek diplomats' achievements in "shaping modern Greece" and making use of the Foreign Ministry's archives. Mr. Varvitsiotis said that Greek Diplomacy has successfully integrated the country into the hard core of all European and Euro-Atlantic institutions while also expanding the country through significant successes. Finally, he congratulated Konstantinos Bitsios, son of Dimitrios Bitsios and Ambassador (ret.) himself, for his initiative to donate his father's archive and part of his personal archive to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Varvitsiotis expressed his satisfaction with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias’ initiative to give Dimitrios Bitsios' name to the Reading Room of the Diplomatic and Historical Archives Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
July 27, 2022