Trilateral ties an antidote to Turkish hostility
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi agreed on Tuesday that a “smart way” must be found in order to deal with Turkish aggression.
Speaking after meeting with Ashkenazi and Cyprus Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides in Athens, Dendias referred to the trilateral cooperation between the three countries as a kind of “antidote to Ankara’s revisionist tendencies” in the region.
“Our region will not return to the 19th century. It will proceed to the 21st on the basis of common understanding,” he said, adding that the three countries are creating “a new geography of understanding that transcends old stereotypes, that reshapes the map of our region.”
Dendias and Ashkenazi also agreed to further deepen defense cooperation, with Israel expected in the coming period to be elevated to a position it did not have in the past in Greece.
The senior Israeli diplomat stressed the need for international law to be respected, noting that the purpose of the tripartite cooperation is “to continue our stability and defense cooperation and the security of our region.”
Ashkenazi also referred to a series of normalization agreements his country is making with Sudan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Christodoulides, for his part, bemoaned Turkey’s behavior, which he said undermines regional stability. “We see this not only in Cyprus and Greece, but also in Syria, Libya and Iraq,” he said, adding that Ankara’s action in the town of Varosha in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus are not helping the efforts of the United Nations secretary-general for a resumption of peace talks on the island.
