Greek FM Dendias: Territorial integrity black and white; same for law of the sea

Greek Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Dendias on Sunday responded to the latest – and even more egregious – insolent and threatening rhetoric emanating from the poll-trailing Erdogan government in Turkey.

Speaking at a ruling ND party event in the western port city of Patras on Sunday, the Greek minister noted that “there was tension in (bilateral relations) at other times, but never has a NATO member over a consecutive three and a half years repeatedly threatened another country, an ally (in NATO), that it will ‘come one night’.”

In pointing to the highlights of the Mitsotakis government’s geopolitical policy over the past four years, he cited bilateral defense agreements with France and the United States, as well as the signing of delimitation agreements for EEZs with Italy and Egypt.

In touching on Athens’ unqualified support for Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion of the country, he said “…many people ask me why we took such a clear-cut position when Russia invaded Ukraine…For Greece there was no question. Any other position, any other tactic would have made relative the reaction in the face of the same revisionist argument we face in the Aegean; every day, week, month, for the past three and a half years. Some things in life are black and white,” he said, while emphasizing:

“The independence of countries is black and white. Territorial integrity is black and white. The law of the sea is black and white, and we cannot sign-off on treating such principles as relative, as our neighbor in the east wants; that would be a fatal error on our part. In reality, we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot.”