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PM Tsipras: we are restoring relations between Greece and Russia

PM Tsipras: we are restoring relations between Greece and Russia

“We are restoring the relations between Greece and Russia, bringing them back on the rails we have laboriously laid since 2015,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said about his visit to Moscow and meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev, in an article published on Saturday in Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper.

Greece’s aim is to take advantage of the opportunities opening up for Greek-Russian relations after the country’s exit from the crisis, he continued, and stressed the important role Greece is beginning to establish “as a European power and bridge of cooperation with a strong, historical partner, in a moment crucial for geopolitical developments.”

Tsipras then presented the main issues currently at stake in Greek-Russian relations, namely, Russian investments in Greece, improved Greek export performance, expansion of energy cooperation under a new basis, and Russia’s role in ensuring a fair and sustainable solution for the Cypriot issue.

He then referred to his visit in Moscow and St Petersburg in 2015, explaining that his purpose was not to ask for economic support in the event of a bankruptcy following Greece’s return to the national currency but to revive relations between the two countries, which had been lying dormant for five years.

Exit from the Eurozone was never a choice the government considered, Tsipras said.

About the Prespes Agreement, he underlined that “Greece does not deal with its crucial national issues in the light of third parties,” whether these are its NATO allies or important partners like Russia. Instead, he said, the government’s only guide when dealing with such issues are Greece's national interests.

Source: amna-mpa