ATHENS – "Our main concern is to make it clear that Greece is turning a page" and "to bring forward a country that innovates, creates, develops and regains its active role among developed countries," Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, Religious and Consular Affairs Konstantinos Alexandris said on Sunday in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).

In this regard, Alexandris underlined that the General Secretariat is working intensively to prepare a new portal for Greece, which will gather all information, in a user friendly way for the foreign language audience. "This initiative was deemed necessary and has already been included in the national reform plan for this year, as one of the main ways to promote the national image in a coordinated manner is through the collection of all necessary information about the country in a single web portal," he stressed.

Focusing on the scope of the General Secretariat's responsibilities, he emphasized culture as an element of extroversion and recognition. In addition, religious diplomacy is one of the dominant responsibilities of the secretariat.

"This is an area where Greece, for historical reasons in particular, has found itself playing an important role from a very early age as a country with a strong Orthodox footprint in its culture, but also with the ability to better understand other cultures as it is at a crossroads of continents, cultures and religions," he explained.

In addition, he referred to another aspect that the General Secretariat is in charge of, the consular affairs. "Our effort is to make life easier for our expatriates abroad limiting bureaucracy and modernizing the operation of our consulates," he said.