Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ statements ahead of working lunch with Côte d’Ivoire counterpart, Kandia Camara (Abidjan, 11. 01. 2023)

Allow me to say exactly how happy I am to be nowadays in Abidjan, how impressed I was with the discussion using the President and how happy I am for my discussion along with my dear colleague, the particular Foreign Minister. Allow me to consume, also, to the friendship of the Hellenic Republic and Côte d’Ivoire, for the health of the Chief executive and for the health of my dear friend the Foreign Ressortchef (umgangssprachlich). I cannot describe to you how joyful we were to see that this has been resolved in a peaceful way. And we were aware of the particular challenges that were presented to Ivory Coast by this detention over these long six months. So , again, allow me to do it again our warmest congratulations. I would like to move to another subject, on the subject of international organisations. We very much appreciate the common support agreement designed for candidacies in the UN Security Council; Greece has supported your candidacy for the political election in the period 2018-2019 plus Ivory Coast would assistance our candidacy for 2025-2026. So , I would like to thank you for this support. I am also looking towards my discussions with the Minister in order to get a clearer understanding of the overall security challenges with this very important region of the planet. Last but not least, Greece is really a proud member of the European Union household. And as you know there are a lot of tasks and initiatives that the European Union supports in Africa. You want to work through the Team European countries approach in order to facilitate projects, cooperations and common understanding in our European capacity. We all always believed that European countries needs to understand Africa more. And also, Europe has to appreciate that Africa is not the distant continent but a newer “abroad” for you. And also, which the sea, both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, are not seas that will divide Europe from Africa. Rather the opposite. They are links of communication. And they have to become perceived and addressed in that way. I have to say that A holiday in greece is interested in examining potential investment opportunities in Côte d’Ivoire. Greece has important experience in tourism, important experience in construction, both in urban and rural tasks, important experience producing innovative building materials, in generating energy, especially from renewables, to address at the same time climate alter, in water and waste materials management, information and telecoms technology, and in health providers.   I am absolutely certain that people could create the circumstances in which our business communities could work together and create successful tasks. I am also pleased that the President, but also my friend the Foreign Minister, acknowledge the need, the necessity of investments in Côte d’Ivoire. The job is to create a framework to facilitate these purchases, to facilitate the development of our economic relations. I have to say that today we begin doing this by signing the Memorandum on bilateral cooperation between our diplomatic services. So , we have the chance to understand each other better, but also we now have forwarded a draft on an MoU on military coaching, which we can discuss and hopefully sign in the future. Last but not least, Ukraine. Unfortunately, our era saw a war within the European continent following the unlawful Russian invasion of Ukraine. Humanity, after the Second Globe War, especially Europe, offers lived with the hope that war will not return. We were wrong. That is something that should give us more and more resolve to ensure that this to create an example to exhibit that any breach associated with international law, not improving the territorial integrity plus sovereignty of countries can be something that cannot be accepted with the international community. And I would like to openly praise Côte d’Ivoire for the clear and principled stance on this unlawful invasion of a sovereign country. Greece became a member of the International Organisation of La Francophonie in 2006. This is an additional international organisation in which we wish very much to work together. Also, I had fashioned the pleasure to say towards the President but also to my beloved colleague that Greece is really a big maritime power. The particular Greek-owned fleet, the Greek-owned commercial fleet is the greatest fleet in the world. Just to give you one small example, 50 percent of the Grain exports from Ukraine are transported by Greek-owned ships. And, as you know very well, the Gulf associated with Guinea is a very important maritime route. And security in the Gulf of Guinea is very high on our agenda. It is a great pleasure to be here in Côte d’ Ivoire. I got the honour to be the 1st Greek Foreign Minister to have ever visited this beautiful and important country and I possess the additional honour to be obtained by the President of Côte d’Ivoire and submit in order to him the proposal associated with my President Katerina Sakellaropoulou to visit Greece at his earliest convenience. The purpose of our visit here is to enhance our own bilateral cooperation and enhance our relations with your extremely important country. And I have to say how confident I am that the relationships between our two countries can be further developed. Our geographic proximity and the related challenges such as migration, terrorism, the need for economic growth, the need for creating a better life for our citizens make Côte d’Ivoire a very important partner for us. Furthermore, we are observing that you are among the fastest growing economies in Africa and we are ready to consider concrete steps to strengthen our own relations with you. And I want to repeat my congratulations towards the President of Côte d’Ivoire for the responsible and sensible and successful work when he dealt with the problems of the 49 soldiers who have been detained for months by the Malian authorities. We are very happy also that Côte d’Ivoire is a proud member of the Buddies of UNCLOS. For Portugal, International Law and International Law of the Sea may be the holy gospel, the almost holy book of our foreign policy. And we are happy to discuss and work with countries and leaders that have the same strategy we have. We are looking forward to exchanging opinions and ideas about this cooperation.

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