JOURNALIST: Minister, thank you for being with us this evening for your first interview with OPEN. I wanted to start by asking about the map made public today by a high-ranking Turkish official showing the agreement between Turkey and Libya. What is Greek diplomacy’s reading of this map?
N. DENDIAS: We’re keeping our cool. I’ve seen thousands of maps in recent months. I don’t think one more will make any difference. Turkey is trying to maximise its demands so it can negotiate on its own terms. We don’t follow that policy.
JOURNALIST: You met with the Turkish and Libyan Ambassadors in the space of a few hours.
N. DENDIAS: The Turkish Ambassador, first of all, was not aware of the issue. He said he would get back to me, and I’m waiting for him to return with the explanations he needs to provide. There is a specific reason behind our stance on Libya: that, when I met with the Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs in New York, in September, he admitted to me that such negotiations were in fact taking place between Turkey and Libya, but said that there could be no agreement because it runs counter to International Law. So, in spite of the reassurances I received, Mr. Sarraj went ahead and signed this memorandum. It is, if you will, a personal favour to the problem of Erdogan. We can call it what we like. But in all likelihood the text is not legally binding in any way.
JOURNALIST: Following your meeting with your Egyptian colleague, in your statement you mentioned acceleration of the talks on delimitation of EEZs with Egypt.
N. DENDIAS: What I and my colleague discussed – because Egypt is a friendly country, let’s not forget that – is a dialogue between friends. We are going to take another look at where things stalled and try to reconvene the Committees soon. If they reach a point of disagreement, the Ministers will be called upon to resolve the difference.
JOURNALIST: The opposition’s criticism of you focuses on two points: First, that you are following a policy of appeasement with Turkey, and second, that developments caught you off guard.
N. DENDIAS: First of all, with regard to the policy of appeasement you mentioned, I’ll start by saying that my name is not “Nikitaras” and I don’t have a scimitar. But beyond that, I think the Mitsotakis government is defending the country’s interests exactly as it should defend them. And I don’t see what the previous government did that gives them the right to accuse us of something like this.
But what I also want to say – and I’m not saying this mainly to a domestic audience; I avoid raising foreign policy issues for a domestic audience, as if it were a subject for party politicking – is that under no circumstances will this government cede any of the country’s sovereignty or sovereign rights.
December 3, 2019