During the first day of the debate in the competent parliamentary committees of the bill on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis stressed the following: “Our country must meet the challenge of Brexit with optimism. Not with fear or grumbling, like a Europe beset by internal disagreements and conflicts, but with a sense of its historical dimension. In other words, that Greece and the United Kingdom have a traditional historical relationship, that the UK is one of our biggest trade, economic and tourism partners. Traditionally, we have a strong position, we have a vast network of cultural relations, and on the day after Brexit these relations must be reborn through cultivation of bilateral contacts.”
Mr. Varvitsiotis made special reference to the Prime Minister’s meeting with President Trump at the White House. Specifically, responding to criticism from the main opposition party, he underscored that “At a difficult time for our national issues and for the wider region, Kyriakos Mitsotakis showed through his stance that he has a say and a role and that he is defending our sovereign rights on every level and in every possible way.”
He brought to mind the unpleasant position Alexis Tsipras once found himself in on a visit to the U.S., saying he regretted previous statements he had made about President Trump. “In contrast,” he continued, “we are in a period during which the defence of our national sovereign rights, the promotion of Greece’s role as a pillar of stability in the region, the cultivation of multilateral relations with all of the countries in the region and, of course, the firmness with which we serve our strategic relations with the United States are fundamental axes of our foreign policy. This was clearly visible yesterday.”
“For us,” he concluded, “the strategic relationship with the United States is not a new element of our policy. For our party it has always been a cornerstone of our country’s foreign policy. And we are pleased that everyone who fought this strategic relationship now supports it.”
January 8, 2020