Kyriakos Mitsotakis travels this Monday, September 22, to New York to participate in the work and contacts of the 80th High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly, with attention focused on his meeting with Tayyip Erdogan on September 23, on the sidelines of the General Assembly proceedings.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Firm Greek positions ahead of the Erdogan meeting
“Greece will never discuss disarmament issues, nor obviously ‘grey zones’ issues, nor sovereignty issues,” was the message sent by Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his recent television interview, who nevertheless wants to keep communication channels with Ankara open at the highest level. He also wants to maintain the benefits from the so-called “calm waters policy,” which primarily includes the arrival of tourists from Turkish coasts to Eastern Aegean islands with express visas, reduced migration flows, and limitation of overflights and violations of national airspace.
It is also clear that along with “the olive branch” he is also wielding the threat of a veto for the European defense program SAFE. As he has stated, “as long as the casus belli remains on the table and as long as Turkey displays revisionism in other fields that is detrimental to Greece, Greece will block Turkey’s participation in the SAFE program, as it has the ability to do.”
Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ interventions
Kyriakos Mitsotakis will deliver his speech before the UN General Assembly on Friday, September 26, where he is expected to address the fluid international and regional geopolitical environment being shaped, Greece’s position as a pillar of stability within it, as well as challenges and risks from Ukraine to the Middle East. On the morning of the same day, he will meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the United Nations headquarters.
Earlier, on Tuesday September 23, Mr. Mitsotakis will participate in the reception hosted in New York in honor of leaders by US President Donald Trump. On Wednesday September 24, the prime minister will have two interventions at the UN concerning protection of minors on the Internet and Artificial Intelligence and International Peace and Security. The first, on Wednesday morning, at an Australian event on Child Protection in the Digital Age, and the second, at midday the same day, at the central event of the Korean presidency of the UN Security Council on “Artificial Intelligence and International Peace and Security.” It’s worth noting that the government delegation will include the coordinator of the National AI Advisory Committee under the prime minister, Yiannis Mastrogeorgiou.
Subsequently, Mr. Mitsotakis will address a Greek-American dinner co-organized by 28 diaspora organizations – among others, representatives from AHEPA, HALC PSEKA, AHI, HANC, HACC will attend. Prominent Greek-Americans will be decorated at the event. According to information, these include journalist and author Nicholas Gage (Nikos Gatzoyannis, son of the executed Eleni Gatzoyanni), Metropolitan Methodios of Boston, Dean Metropoulos, a major investor and businessman born in Chranos, Arcadia, and Mary Jaharis, with significant philanthropic work who systematically promotes knowledge of Byzantium through the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture.
On Wednesday evening September 24, Kyriakos Mitsotakis will attend and deliver a brief message at the ceremony awarding Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew the Templeton Prize. The prime minister will have met earlier with Mr. Bartholomew.
Mitsotakis’ contacts
During his stay in New York, the prime minister will also have meetings with a series of investors, as well as representatives of major companies operating in energy, defense, and pharmaceuticals sectors. Former TAIPED head Dimitris Politis, who has been the prime minister’s investment advisor for several months, will also be present. Mr. Mitsotakis will have the opportunity to present the investment prospects of the Greek economy, which is achieving primary surpluses and enabling the government to proceed with tax cuts during a period of international fluidity and instability, as he is expected to emphasize.
In New York, the prime minister has scheduled a series of meetings with leaders, specifically on Tuesday September 23 with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, and Yemen President Rashad al-Alimi. On Thursday he will meet with Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, and on Friday with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Mr. Mitsotakis will also have, as every year, meetings with representatives of major American-Jewish organizations. Finally, the Greek prime minister will have contacts with major international media outlets.
On Wednesday September 24, he is invited to the Wall Street Journal’s special discussion circle on the occasion of the UN General Assembly (Journal House UNGA), where he will have a comprehensive discussion with the renowned American newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, titled “Is Greece back?” As the WSJ notes, the discussion will revolve around “the country’s fiscal recovery and its economic trajectory.”
Finally, on Friday September 26, he will give a live interview on Bloomberg Television.
Published in Parapolitika
