Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias will hold talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in Washington.
The meetings will take place on the sidelines of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ two-day official visit in the United States. Dendias will attend Mitsotakis’ meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday.
Speaking about Greek-US relations, Dendias said that strategic collaboration between the two NATO allies has reached new heights over the past three years. The second amendment to the US-Greece Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement (MDCA), which was ratified in the Greek Parliament last week, establishes in legal terms the commitment of both countries to expand their historic ties of friendship and long-term collaboration, he said.
Asked about relations between Athens and Ankara, Dendias said that Greece supports “a constructive dialog on the basis of international law” – in particular the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). He said that Turkey’s aggression, its revisionist policies and the repeated violations of Greek national sovereignty are “unacceptable and obviously undermine NATO cohesion.”
Turning to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Dendias called for an investigation into possible war crimes by Russian troops. He said he will communicate this request in his upcoming visit to The Hague.
The Greek minister said that he and Kerry will announce a joint initiative for the protection of the seas, based on the Law of the Sea Convention.