D. AVRAMOPOULOS: It is a special joy for me to welcome today, at the Ministry of National Defence, the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, my colleague Mr. Sergey Shoygu. Our meeting and the discussions that followed affirmed the excellent level of our bilateral political relations and traditional historic friendly relations between our two countries.
Russia is our country’s strategic partner, with whom we have a common approach and mutual goals at a great number of regional and international matters, as it was established during the precedent discussions with Mr. Shoygu.
I believe that our constructive cooperation with Russia is very important, especially during such a critical period for international and regional developments.
In this context, we discussed ways for further deepening and enhancing our defence relations, which ultimately serve and contribute to the preservation of security, in our often turbulent geopolitical region.
We agreed that it would be functional to enhance institutionalised forms of cooperation between our General Staffs. A functional mechanism for that are the annual Military Cooperation Programmes, to which it is important we give new dynamics, promoting their qualitative -rather than their quantitative- aspect.
Moreover, besides the intensification of educational activities, our staffs could establish new and productive ways of approach, so as to identify and discover new levels of cooperation.
In fact, during Mr. Shoygu’s visit to Athens today, we were given the opportunity to sign a framework of agreement, after completing our discussions.
At this point, I would like to point out one more time that the Greek defence system, one of the most trustworthy and best in Europe, is always put at the service of security, cooperation, peace and good neighbourly relations; this is what brings the two countries closer.
Besides, the fluid situation that is observed in our wider neighbourhood, our broader region, can only be improved through one combination of multiple components, which naturally include political cooperation, military capability and the common policies of countries and international organisations.
Dear Minister, my dear friend, your visit today gives a new dynamic to our bilateral defence cooperation, to the benefit of both countries.
Besides, we all know your contribution to fighting the destructive forest fires in Greece, in the summer of 2007, and Russia’s help to our country, but also your personal help, being at the time Minister of Emergency Situations of our friend Russia. I would like to avail myself of this opportunity, in order to express once more our gratitude for your help at that time.
Mister Minister, your visit today is of particular importance. It signals a new beginning in our relations. I would like to assure you that, as far as I am concerned, but also as far as the relationship between our two Staffs is concerned, the characteristics that will always prevail are good faith, friendly disposition and a conscious aspect on the role we should play in view of a very hard period we experience in our broader region.
I would like to thank once more Mister Minister and, of course, his delegation, for the constructive, heartfelt and friendly discussions we had and that, as I already said, inaugurate a new era in our bilateral relations and in the field of defence. I welcome him, I thank him and I invite him to take the floor.
S. SHOYGU: Thank you very much mister Minister. Ladies and gentlemen, very constructive work has been done during today’s meeting. We have discussed most issues related to our cooperation.
We referred to 2013 and we discussed our plans and programmes for 2014. The experts have explicitly looked into all matters of bilateral cooperation between our countries.
We also discussed on the cooperation between our Navies. As it is known, this cooperation has a long history and we are trying to extract some conclusions as for all these years.
Next summer we will have the 20th anniversary of cooperation between our countries’ Armed Forces. We are proud of the outcome of this cooperation and we discussed its perspective in the future.
The details concerning this cooperation should be approved as soon as possible, within 2014. We signed a transnational agreement that will open new paths, new perspectives to broadening our cooperation in military-technical cooperation.
We also discussed matters concerning existing Russian-made weapon systems, the issue of follow-on support and other issues that will be included in the cooperation programme.
We have set out watches as far as the system of European and international security is concerned, and particularly the developments that take place in the region of the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Practically, we have agreed in all respects. I would like to say that, in the past years, we have taken many steps forward and this is something we pointed out with my counterpart, mister Minister.
I am glad, since I have acquired a new friend in the face of mister Avramopoulos, the Minister of National Defence of Greece, who enjoys serious political weight in Greece but also in the broader European area. Unsurprisingly, he plays an important role in Europe and the broader region, as former Minister of Foreign affairs. I would like to thank the colleagues for an admirably organised visit and hospitality, in which we can always see the Hellenic soul; I believe in the enhancement and continuance of all our contacts next year in Moscow.
I proposed that we meet there in Moscow, in 2014, at the meeting that will be dedicated to the issue of European Security and I believe that it is better that we meet during summer time and not during the winter.
Thank you very much.