Baerbock: Greece is ‘one of our closest partners in Europe’
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed Greece’s role in the European Union’s support for Ukraine, in the fight against the climate crisis and securing EU borders in a statement ahead of her two-day visit to Greece on Thursday.
“In Greece, I will be visiting one of our closest partners in Europe – in our support for Ukraine, in our European resistance against Russia’s aggression and also in the fight against the climate crisis and in the vigorous expansion of renewable energies,” she said in a statement ahead of her visit to Athens and Istanbul.
Baerbock said she wants to discuss what the EU must do to “ensure that our common external border is secure – also for the people risking their lives in seeking refuge here.” She said the task that Greece is shouldering on behalf of the bloc “is immense and merits our full solidarity.”
In an indirect reference to the tensions between Greece and Turkey, she said that the two NATO countries must solve their problems “through talks, not by escalating tensions.”
Baerbock also made a reference to World War II, when Nazi Germany occupied Greece. “Many Germans are well acquainted with Greece as a holiday destination, but too few are aware of the truly enormous guilt that Germany brought upon itself there in the Second World War with the atrocities of the Nazi occupation,” she said.
“Keeping the memory of this alive is important to me – because it is vital to a good common future.”
