PM Mitsotakis: Greece will not reveal its weapons at this moment

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at a press conference on the sidelines of the NATO meeting in Washington was asked on North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski who continues to not comply with the Prespa agreement regarding the use of the country's constitutional name.

Asked if Greece is considering making use of the provisions of Article 19 of the agreement, the prime minister said that he had the opportunity to inform his colleagues of the fact that the Prime Minister of North Macedonia has chosen not to implement a crucial article of the agreement in terms of her constitutional name against all saying that he calls the country the 'Republic of Macedonia' within the borders, which is apparently expressly prohibited by the agreement. He also pointed out that in the room and in the presence of all the NATO leaders, he did not follow this tactic and used the constitutional name of his country. From then on he said that one way or another, the leadership of the neighbouring country will realise that this tactic is completely counterproductive."

Mitsotakis said that the agreements should be implemented and this is something he noted at NATO's assembly on Wednesday. He also underlined that Greece wants North Macedonia to take steps towards a European approach, but this presupposes respect for international law and respect for the agreements that the country has obviously signed (...) and this is something that he believes that one way or another, the leadership of Skopje will realize. In any case, he added, Greece will not reveal at this moment the weapons it has at its disposal to respond to the eventual persistence of the neighbouring country's leadership in this tactic."

Regarding the Cyprus issue, when asked if there was a reaction from Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he raised it at their meeting and if developments should be expected, Mitsotakis noted: "First of all, the Greek government and I personally have expressed our satisfaction with the fact that there is an initiative by UN and indeed the special envoy has submitted her first opinion to the General Secretary, I don't know the details of its content, obviously I can't comment on it.

He underlined that the Greek government continues to support the restart of the talks between the two communities on the basis of the UN resolutions.

Asked if there was any development at the NATO summit on the initiative he took with the Prime Minister of Poland on the European air defence shield and how he responds to criticism that the delivery of F-16s to Kiev is a dangerous escalation, Mitsotakis underlined that regarding the issue of our initiative, he reminded that it is a European initiative adding that he believes it became clear at this meeting that Europe needs to do more to strengthen its own defence capability and to spend more resources but at the same time to do it in a smarter way.

The Greek Prime Minister was also asked if Greece was asked to reinforce Ukraine with anti-aircraft systems. Mitsotakis said that Greece will not provide Ukraine with either Patriot systems or S-300 systems adding that Greece has deployed other types of anti-aircraft systems, of shorter range, always with the agreement of the General Staff of National Defense, to support Ukraine in the very difficult battle it is fighting.

Finally, asked if there was a discussion with US President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, even "on foot" about Greek national issues, the Prime Minister said that always on the sidelines of these summit meetings they have the opportunity to discuss, even briefly, issues that concern them adding that they reaffirmed the excellent level of Greek-American relations and discussed some common challenges and issues that concern Greece (...) in the wider Balkan region.