MOSCOW – A meeting between Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov continued with the participation of broader delegations of both sides on Friday in Moscow. A private meeting between the two ministers was held earlier.

Dendias described this fifth meeting of the two ministers as one “of great importance” and thanked Lavrov during his introductory remarks “for the opportunity to discuss in depth the security situation in Europe”. He added that “Greece is in favour of maintaining peace, stability and security, but also of a constructive dialogue based always on international law, as well as on the law of the sea and on the basis of the fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

The foreign minister also noted that during the meeting he intends to brief his Russian counterpart on “developments in the Aegean, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Cyprus issue” and to ask for his views on what is happening in Syria and Libya, while the discussion of the two ministers “on the ways of further development of our bilateral relations will be extensive, especially after the meeting of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with President Putin last December”.

“I think that there is an important bilateral agenda, which we can promote in our meeting today,” Dendias underlined.

The Russian foreign minister said that Moscow attaches “special value to our dialogue on regional and international affairs,” listing current issues such as the Russian Security Assistance Initiative, Ukraine and the East. Mediterranean, the Balkans, Transcaucasia, the Middle East and North Africa.”

He noted that “in all these directions our Greek friends have their own position. We are interested in taking your interests into account. We are pleased and ready to discuss any issue of interest to you.”

Lavrov described Friday’s meeting as “a good opportunity to look at how what has been agreed at the level of our leaders is being implemented,” referring to the development of “trade and economic relations, investment, energy, transport and communications and of course tourism and ensuring the epidemiological security of citizens.”

The Russian minister described the Joint Action Plan for 2022-24 as an “important document and the basis of joint work,” and stressed that Russia attaches great importance to humanitarian and cultural contacts, highlighting “the successful organisation of the Year of Greek-Russian History,” which coincided with the 200-year anniversary since the start of the Greek Revolution and is continuing until the middle of 2022, following a decision of the two governments.