FM Dendias receives Latvian counterpart, says NATO agencies must respect the principles of the Alliance
Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias on Thursday revisited the message posted by the NATO Land Command based in Izmir regarding Turkey’s ‘Victory Day’, saying that “the agencies of the Alliance, starting with its leadership, the secretary general, must respect and honour all the allies and the principles of the Alliance.”
Dendias made the statement after receiving his Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkevics in Athens for talks on strengthening bilateral relations, cooperation within the EU and international organisations, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Noting that LANDCOM’s message was a “divergence from the principles of alliance”, he stressed that Greece had contributed much to NATO in recent decades and would not accept this behaviour.
“I am satisfied because, after yesterday’s demarche, NATO took corrective action,” he added.
Dendias emphasised that the rhetoric directed by Turkey toward Greece on the centenary of the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922 “were not fitting for an allied country”.
“We, on our part, will not slip into a rhetoric of reviving the past. As a European democracy we look to the future,” he added, emphasising that Greece valued human rights, the rights of women, democracy and international law, and also considered that NATO, as an alliance, had exactly the same approach, being an alliance of sovereign states and supported these principles, which were adopted at the Madrid Summit in June.
On Ukraine, he said that both Greece and Latvia had adopted a stance based on full respect for international law and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries.
“Democracy, the rule of law and protection of human rights are the core of the EU, the family which we are both members of,” he added.
Dendias said that any war crimes committed must not go unpunished, emphasising Greece’s great sensitivity with regard to Mariupol, in particular, which was home to more than 100,000 Greeks.
On the issue of sanctions, Greece and Latvia agreed that there must be a united front, as the countries that failed to implement the sanctions, such as Turkey, were allowing room for Russia aggressiveness. He noted that the largest Russian investment abroad was the nuclear power station in Turkey.
“Russia and Turkey appear to have adopted similar models of behaviour, promoting revisionism,” Dendias said, noting that this was contrary to international law and order and EU beliefs.
The Latvian foreign minister noted that the sanctions against Russia must be implemented by all candidate EU member-states and that there should be no loopholes to circumvent them. “We must continue our cooperation to achieve this goal,” he added.
“It is very important that I am here to pay tribute to the centenary since we established diplomatic relations [with Greece],” he noted, thanking Greece for its stance with respect to the Baltic states in NATO and the strengthening of NATO’s east wing.
He said he was very happy that there was agreement among EU foreign ministers in Prague on the need to fully stop the facilitation of visas for Russian citizens: “This is very important for security reasons, as my countries and other countries bordering with Russia are directly affected by this. But it also sends a message to the citizens of Russia that there is moral responsibility in the context of the war,” he added.
Rinkevics went on to thank Dendias for his “excellent” statement about the death of Mikhail Gorbachev and underlined the need to boost bilateral economic relations, political dialogue and defence cooperation.
“We especially appreciate everything that Greece has done by sending arms to Ukraine,” he noted, adding that Latvia participates in Frontex as part of the EU effort to help Greece. [AMNA]
