Mitsotakis in Parliament on Tuesday on armaments with an eye on Ukraine and Turkey

Concern continues to prevail in Athens about the developments in Ukraine both in terms of the fate of the Greek community and the impact on the country’s energy reserves and gas prices and of course a headache for the government are the delicate balances in which it is called to move between in Washington and Moscow.

Greek Diaspora and energy security

In fact, today a meeting was held at the Maximos Mansion under the leadership of Kyriakos Mitsotakis with officials in charge of energy security and various scenarios were examined on the subject without any official panic.

At the same time, an issue arose with the killing of two ethnic Greeks and the wounding of two others, by Ukrainian soldiers, with the Foreign Ministry and the government spokesman holding low tones, expressing condolences, while Nikos Dendias was about to talk to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba over the phone, again, about the need to protect the Greek Community there. It is noted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already issued an instruction calling on the Greeks of Ukraine to leave while discouraging those who want to travel to Ukraine.

For now, however, there is no change in the planned visit of the Foreign Minister to Moscow, where he will have talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, at the invitation of the latter, who has expressed Russian discomfort over the use of Souda and especially of the port of Alexandroupolis for the needs of the American army.

Greece in alignment with partners and talking with everyone

“In the Ukraine crisis, Greece is aligned with its allies and partners. On the other hand, we keep the communication channels open. It is always useful to talk to all sides,” said government spokesman Giannis Economou, reiterating Greece’s position and adding:

“Greece has an increased prestige and an increased credibility in terms of its relations and talks with the Russian side. “Our role will always be to assist us in the peaceful settlement of the disputes that exist there.”

In this climate, the bill for the supply of Belh@ra frigates and Rafale aircraft is expected to be voted tomorrow in the Plenary Session. The information wants the political leaders and Kyriakos Mitsotakis to come to Parliament and intervene in the debate on the armaments with a view to Ukraine but also in the recent statements of Cavusoglu with which Turkey raises the issue of questioning Greek sovereignty in the Aegean islands. alleging a violation of the Lausanne Treaty and the demilitarization regime.

Questions

One of the questions that the opposition is expected to ask the government is whether this equipment will ultimately help the defense of the countries or the needs of the western camp in its rivalry with Russia, if for example the strengthening of Greek-American relations at the military level is effective response to Turkish aggression or if it endangers Greek-Russian relations as in the case of the port of Alexandroupolis.

These are some of the issues that are expected to be discussed as long as the political leaders and Mr. Mitsotakis arrive in Parliament tomorrow. For the time being, however, the government’s position is based on the logic that it follows the decisions of NATO and the EU, claiming the role of a reliable interlocutor with Russia due to the traditionally good Greek-Russian relations.

It is worth noting that today Nikos Dendias had another meeting with the US Ambassador to Athens Jeffrey Payat where they discussed both in the aftermath of Tsavousoglou’s statements and in view of the upcoming visit of the Greek Foreign Minister to Moscow.

The EU wants to exhaust diplomatic means

In any case, Mr. Mitsotakis is waiting for the situation to calm down and for the EU, as well as there seems to be ambiguity, and in any case at least Germany and France on the Ukrainian issue do not raise the anti-Russian tone as much as the US.

Mr. Mitsotakis took part, on Monday, in a teleconference of European leaders chaired by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. According to Maximos Mansion, the teleconference stressed the need for coordination between the member states of the European Union and better preparation in case of escalation of the crisis, while the need to maintain European unity and the exhaustion of all diplomatic channels and communication channels in order to avoid escalation was stressed. The leaders reiterated that an aggressive action by Russia would have serious consequences at great cost and agreed to stay in touch.

Indicative of the fluidity of the situation is the fact that it is not excluded that there will be an extraordinary EU Summit for Ukraine on Thursday.

A common assessment of market participants is that the trends of de-escalation of energy prices in Europe are being halted with adverse effects on the finances of households and businesses.