Gerapetritis: The Prespa Agreement cannot be unilaterally modified or abolished

Neither of the parties of the Prespa Agreement can unilaterally modify or abolish the treaty, while it is a basic node on which the international relationship with North Macedonia was built, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said on Monday in an interview with 'Talk Radio'.

The minister said that the issue of abolishing the agreement had not yet been raised and noted that Greece respects the election result in North Macedonia but that, regardless of any ideological or political differences that the new leadership may have regarding the Prespa Agreement, "this is an international treaty that has been ratified."

He said it was self-evident that issues relating to a full and consistent compliance with the agreement will be part of the European Union's assessment of North Macedonia, stating his belief that the country's political leadership will therefore take these matters into account and comply with the terms of the treaty.

Gerapetritis said the Greek side was following the matter closely and that New Democracy had pointed out the "grey areas" of the Prespa Agreement when in the opposition, as well as "serious technical issues that, unfortunately, became apparent in due course".

He also denied having any involvement whatsoever in the drafting of the agreement before this was made public, noting that he had pointed out its legal issues at the time and the future problems they might cause.

Whatever its problems, he added, it was important to abide by the agreement for reasons of continuity "and on no account create a unilateral framework on which to build political careers".

Gerapetritis also sent a message of condolences to Iran and the Iranian government for the death of the country's president, saying this would inevitably lead to a period of relative upheaval until the election of a new president, though not one that was serious.

He said the markets' reaction was to be anticipated but predicted that things will soon return to normal, while there would be no significant change in policy relative to Iran.

Regarding Turkiye, Gerapetritis said the Greek side was striving to conduct a dialogue with "a tone of civility and understanding" while denying any "appeasement" of the Turkish side, and pointing out that the two sides must necessarily "coexist geographically".

While the two sides had fundamentally different positions on which, by definition, they could not converge, they could explore the points on which convergence was possible, "so that we can have a framework of understanding that can vouchsafe that we will not reach the point where tension creates a crisis, creates a war."

"Greek foreign policy must be based on the rationale that we build relations of good neighbourliness, relations of alliance, which will create conditions of calm and prosperity for our country," Gerapetritis said, adding that this was especially true in very turbulent times.

No one should overlook the fact that there were currently two wars raging in Greece's vicinity and great disruption in regions of the planet that were very close, such as Africa, he pointed out.

For this reason, he added, Greece was striving to develop three pillars of strength: The first was the pillar of the economy, in which Greece was moving steadily forward; the second was defence, which was being strengthened after a decade-long crisis in which it had lagged behind in terms of equipment and personnel; the third pillar was foreign policy and the building of alliances and of the diplomatic capital of the country.

He said the Greek-Turkish dialogue had the lesser goal of maintaining a state of calm in the neighbourhood - with no violations or the problems with migration flows that had been intense in the previous years - as well as creating a permanent mechanism to decompress tensions.

"The differences exist and will exist. It is important to be able to manage them in a way that will not lead to crises. Because the crises must not [be allowed to] lead to extremely bad results for both the country and our region," he stressed.

Gerapetritis pointed out that the government has chosen a path based on certain, methodically worked-out principles, carefully prepared by the foreign ministry and the political leadership. "The idea is that we will grasp the thread of Greek-Turkish relations and work step by step, starting from the least complex and moving towards the most complex", he said.

The initial aim was to reduce the sources of tension, Gerapetritis explained, pointing to "major steps" taken at the level of immigration, violations, calm in the Aegean, and even the rhetoric used by the parties. The second was to build on mutually beneficial measures that benefit the two economies and bring the two peoples together, as this promotes mutual understanding, such as the fast-track visa system in the Greek islands.

The third step will be to tackle the issue of the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone and the continental shelf, he said, noting that the government's ambition was to ultimately get to grips with this issue. While every attempt will be made to prolong the present calm as long as possible, he said, "the big issue remains and as long as it remains it is obvious that at any moment we may have a regression. A truly peaceful neighbourhood and a long prosperity will come when we tackle our major issue, which is delimitation."

"Our hope is that we will be able to start these discussions. The two leaders will, I believe, give the order in one of their next meetings, so that the two foreign ministers can start discussions on delimitation. It is an issue that has extremely complex legal characteristics," he stressed.

According to the foreign minister, Greece has the advantage of consistently basing its arguments on international law and will continue to do so. "I want to believe that it is an appropriate historical moment to be able to soberly discuss this major chapter," he said.

"We are actively working so that we can also discuss the issue of the continental shelf and the EEZ. And we work actively in the sense that on the one hand we always try to create suitable conditions, through mutual honesty and understanding, always trying to alleviate tensions and control our disagreements", he underlined. "On the other hand, we are working so that we can manage the complex technical issues," he added.

Gerapetritis said that there have been 64 rounds of exploratory contacts in recent years, "which have failed. They got nowhere because what was missing was the larger environment of an open and honest relationship in which to develop.

"Every time we talked we took, unfortunately, a step back in trying to resolve our chronic issue," he noted, blaming a lack of mutual understanding. "The effort is to cultivate a spirit that will take the discussion a little further," he said.

"For us - and for me personally - foreign policy has the great value of being able to create conditions of prosperity for the future. It is not something that should create tension and insecurity for the citizens", Gerapetritis said. "The big goal I have set for myself is for citizens to feel safe and confident about their country's position in the international arena and vis-à-vis their neighbours," he emphasized.

"At the moment it seems that the Greek citizens want the discussion with Turkiye, as the opinion polls prove, but we have reached a level where, precisely because the position of our country has been strengthened on the international stage, they can feel safe about Greece's position," he concluded.