Patrice as welcome to talk to l. Just so pleasant. A no, no, thank you for the invitation. Name was dying of the precipice of a potential, full blown is rarely invasion of rough and southern gaza, causing huge concerns about the implications on the should be in this area and situation that the civilian population that so much so that even the united states, the storage i live as well as urged israel to show restraint as another ally of israel. What conversations are you having with your is there a counterpart specifically about rafa and the conflict when youre in the library . I thing you will have to be very honest, very open, very from instance here. So our main point is that any sort of invasion to rafa should be avoided and prevented at the moment. There is a huge accumulation of the population in the roughly its a very overcrowded region. And any sort of invasion could close that dramatic humanitarian crisis, which we need to avoid. So our advice is that these should be prevented uh by any possible means. What i really want to say is that at this moment were just not the very crucial johnstone, its a difficult situation that were encountering because of the overloading on their own speed. Its feet spill over effects in the region. We have the situation in lab and none of the situation in syria in the red sea. Obviously we had things eventually theyd, on both of these very moments or pot. This needs to have a very high level of, uh, surface, se, talking about surface drain. This must be an incredibly difficult diplomatic position that greece has been put in recently to quotes. How many security echo, so its attack as a back in november said of israel quote, sometimes friends have to speak hard truths to friends that was 5 months ago. Has this or ive been listening to any of those truths. What i have to say is that in this position, you have to be very open, but you have to be a ruler based, a lie, i think. And just from the very 1st day, we had the opportunity to be very open, but also very principals in our policy. We didnt take any side. What we said was that we need to the social shapes. The 3rd is the thoughts, the from Us Organization from the promising and people we sides of the ease. Ryan is had the rights to defend themselves, but we think the boundaries of humanitarian law and all their own International Law. We say its costly just should not be kept because this is totally against any sort of International Law. Choosing people last 2 months, it ends. What we also said was that we need to minimize to the maximum, the civilian losses. Obviously all of these were not sure, but the, the International Community has these lots of goods. The point here is needs that we have to be as pressing as possible in order to implement the eventually the, the hold of the facilities at the moment. What were claiming for is that on the students needs to believe that there is a credible way out. And this is why were fully supporting the 2 state solution. A ways according to their distribution. Initial impressions of the us includes, comes from of the United Nations with the east generation that mazda a competency, 2 of the products by the state. And, of course, with the pre, 1967 borders. The thing is now that the whole community, the whole International Community, next to exercise the maximum pressure upon the parties in order to reach an agreement that i really appreciate what cutoffs and egypt and other art up states are doing. And the efforts of the European Union, how convinced all those goals, partners, our states . I mean, obviously you were here in the region to speak to, to prominent figures. How convinced all those partners here in the middle east and further feel that you are willing to push israel as far as you possibly can at the moment . Is there a reason . I think a consensus within the European Union partners that we need to have an immediate cease fire and we needs to further develop our humanitarian aids towards palestine. There is a consensus on the, on this point and i dont think there is um, any divergence. What we need to do is to find the actual modes in order to exercise further pressure upon their partners. And im speeding both for the mouse and uh for each right. Um i seen each of us with some photos at the moment. News that we joined efforts because there are a lot of funding left which taking place the, the uh, there is the we need to do. There is a good opinion and these are things that are unfair medical and you said we didnt have to actually combine all of those part on the left once in order to have a single efforts to be more effective and meaningful. I wonder if we can focus on that European Initiative because speaking of the Harvard Center for European Studies last year, you said that quote, Global Governance needs to be based on principles, not Just International standards of low, but coherent and consistent policy on a matter of consistent policy to use dressing will speech has greece being consistent in defending international, more and gaza. As you add the e. U has been when it comes to the war and ukraine and russias invasion. I take that to imply that we have dealt with the standards, but the thing is that when it comes to reese, we have a very strong principled foreign policy. We have exactly the same standards when it comes to me, the least or to ukraine or to have such a hard and not freak out. Any other sort of conflict. They both im seeing is here that we fully abide by International Law. We fully abide by you the rooms and more of the sofa International Humanitarian law. And we have almost done that. The thing is, 1st step. We need to actually conduct any sort of aggression and the trustees, thats a, theres a lot of aggression coming from various a started stadium, knocks us. Secondly, what we need to stress either is the Human Dignity is up to the top of our priority. Again, i have to stress the point that we cannot accept the loss of civilian people, but at the same time we cannot accept in any. Busy way that keeping costs with disease or practice in order to get the leverage to have uh, international benefits. What im saying is that we apply on International Law standards. We have to be stronger, but also we have to be as pressing as possible. What we really like is the implementation of, of our basic beliefs, because because the trophies need, thats International Law in these respects. And the International Us that keeps throughout the picture when it comes to me please, but also to ukraine cost fades in my eyes. There is not case of douglas funded to move. Um, what i have to say is, is that we are totally against any sort of aggression. There is no aggression that could be tolerable only when someone defense that its uh on your, when it comes with defensive state authority, integrity, its children. 3, when its about the 2030 law only, then we have a principal policy and they have to say that when it comes to the group here in union, and especially when it comes to race, i think we have a very strong, single standup policy when it comes to ukraine when it comes to me, the list from the very 1st time. And we said that there is a rights defense defense for his room. But at the same time, we cannot accept any sort of disproportionate reaction. And according to just jumping in on the disproportionate reaction that you like, the i mean house, for instance, germany. The powerhouse is economic powerhouse. A viewer has its bowling chips support for israel over the years with huge amounts of Ministry Supports to as well as like complicated your relations. Still, aspirations for peace in the region isnt complicated. Greece is relationship with by that. Um, exactly, because we have a very principles policy when it comes to them, it listening. If we are able to talk to all interested parties up to this very moment, we can speak to the radio affiliate officials as well to the from the senior and officials. We speak to uh, jordan, we speak to 11 and we speak to egypt. We speak to obviously to our uh, gulf partners. We speak to all parties here. We have us uh, shopped in. So it should generally be showing was strange. I think that was the question. Im trying to ask when just remodel view is we talking when it comes to jim support is billions of dollars in naval vessels. Were looking at some arrange and vehicles explosive device is not to mention tank, an aircraft pause. What does it mean to you . The e u made weapons are being used in this theater of war in gaza with such a devastating consequences. No guns should be used in an offensive way. Thats how did you, its, the guns are produced in order to prevent any sort of course that you do in order to be used as a defensive mechanism. And in order to prevent the international security, many human Rights Groups say those weapons being used in goals are to indiscriminately and disproportionate be killed. Do you believe israels war and gaza is indiscriminate to . Ive seen that there has been a, a disproportionate defense here. I think that the desk told is huge is should not have happens, but obviously when, when uh, the other party, you know, who is using people last few months since its very difficult to operate any sort of defense. On the other hand, what im saying is that we should prevent any sort of uh, cvd and mostly is what im suggesting is that by fueling the conflict by continuing this on hindu, unrestricted flow of web re, im a from a prominent e. U. Member states. Surely is not going to lead to peace to pull the right lever in order to urge israel to step away from its current trajectory would surely mean doing something more affirmative. The clearly we need to do so the things of these of the is run. We need to be more pressing. We have discussed these during our, for the 1st comments in the luxembourg, and i think we would find ways to, to be more pressing the forthcoming for failure for right now, for a comes in, in, in process square. Were going to invite the is ready for administer, and were good to hear how the situation is from cesar point. The truth is, i, i think that there is a, you know, limited and our strengths. This point theres going to unlimited among the European Union partners. Thought this very moment, the war needs to stop or we should allow further space for diplomacy to prevent. And we needs to provide a vision to the front of thing and people swear to the states solution. In april 2021 is running grease. You signed your biggest defense procurement deal to you. I mean, the deal includes this 1650000000. 00 contract to train the greek air force. 5 is where the defense contracts are a bit. Systems us over a 22 year period. Thats a serious commitment between greece and israel. Will you, will government be reviewing those military ties in light of what were seeing in the, in the middle east, the israeli oregon. And to be honest name, i dont think its the time to actually revisit our contracts in our strategic partnerships. I think the moment is here to see more than 2 minutes what message does not send in terms of your commitment to peace in the region. The commitment to peace is our principal auto duty to um, uh, to claim for, for a cease fire to claim for fed that remaining 30 need to be a sincere mediation, was because the truth is now new, that countries like greece is more useful, never the same was cathartic because we arent able to talk to both parties. Nope. And countries come talk to both countries. And this is the outcome of our base policy. Obviously we of a start digit partnership with caesar, and well call them carpet. Theres a nice thing. It is important to have so that they took a lot of interest in, in the region, but these cars not prevented us from being very strong and very thoughtful with these. Right. And how would you explain the growing closeness between greece and israel, and recent years off to rule previous greek governments . I think its fair to say have been very sympathetic to the posting cause i mean, back in 1982. It was greek ships that was sent to bring the p l. O liter. Yes, to her fax to athens. Whats happened over the years . Nothing. We still have a excellent relationship with the big states and especially with the Palestinian Authority from the very 1st time what we said was that we should prevent any sort of the legend, my thirtys ation awful. For the 1st thing in the 421 of the major problems now is that we do not have a credible interrupt from the, from the scene inside. Because in the course of the it will, there has been a demoralization of the kind of thing. And i forwarded the from the very 1st day we said that we would like to see the policy, you know, forwarded to being a credible discussions. We think that the Palestinian Authority represents the policy in young people. And this is why i myself visited my life and i hosted the for in minnesota and i have 2 laptops with the high level of the Political Leadership in palestine. We have an excellent relationship, we fully support them. We have provided you with some extra money tied in support and we intend to be again, i am saying this, we intend to be very honest with the tours. In this total mind, i ask about the garden closeness between greece and israel because the p is too many out of this looking in from the inside. Thats that relationship is based upon a shed, mistrust off to you and correct. Its no secret. Of course, he remained at all just over the territory of the status of cyprus. The list goes on to, 1st of all, id like to say that agrees voltage, things say well are all for for the cease fire. And they will, the further they for many, 30. 00 and 8. 00 during the day or another assembly or for, for the United Nations. And weve produced together, we produce with the allies, the resolution to stop facilities and provide further humanitarian aid. Now, when it comes to international politics, i have to tend to go very frankly, needs that we do not follow any sort of transaction. Im going to say what to imply is that we have some joint interest with is really because we, we go against 2 key. This is not the case. I have to tell you this on 2 grounds. First, as a matter of principle, because what we do has nothing to do with getting any collateral benefits. From my 1st day in the for the ministry, i said that i would follow it very well, base policy, a very principal policy. And i have fully abided by this, so i do not expect to have any gains from my countrys policy. The cert from the thing is that, that now we are in the state of improving our relationship with duty. We havent gotten a lot of significant steps in order to meet together with the insurance. The truth is that in the last year we have made it to actually reduce tension in the broad the region. We havent made it to develop a positive agenda. Never, never less talk to you yet. Has continually accused you of minutes rising the june as an other ones words, its not happening. So when we have to say that, uh, the uh, restrict key relationship is based on International Law. Its not something that is determined by the voluntary is to do the venue of those states or International Law explicitly proclaims that uh the the, the islands, the g and not allowed to belong to greece. There is, um, a line. Busy of uh, i lets um that uh, protects it fully protected by International Law. Reese is exercising the full legitimate provides to defense the island sense of defense of the country. Its obviously when you have a huge army, just across the net in a couple of minds, these funds, you need to be very well prepared. Having said that, i need to say that to we are working for peace and i think we have strong explicit evidence that we uh, 150 to be close to us. And indeed, our Prime Minister mutual talk is whos going to, im caught on the 15th of may, were going to have a very productive bought dialogue. This is coming in after months of full spreads. And theyre the ones visit to athens on the side of this, on the 7th of december last year, we signed and very important to both from, from the point of view of this important from nature as well as from the practical viewpoints and political probation indicating good for neighbor realizations and frankly supplemental funds. So you, if you could definitely cool this in your eyes, very much our, our approach mom. But still as i mentioned, underlying tensions remain when a recent days took. You describe the decision to designate parts of the gmc on iron. You can see as greek nature pox. They say youll simply exporting issues to push your geo political agenda, namely to assert control over the entire region. Its all cases during that. No, because as i said, were not doing any transaction, im totally fixed to start with what were doing it just to preserves our environments and in natures environments. Last week we had the very successful reunion. The 9 please. We have the nines, our ocean conference, its a huge conference about the preservation of authors and oceans worldwide. We have 125. 00 delegations from around the world. It was very important. Catherine, we had about 400 commitments amounting to about 11000000000 euros bureau is about among our commitments as well as the establishment of to fox uh, in uh, greece running the on the and see wanting the a gmc, uh, what were saying is that to those bach, wed be devoid of any sort of finance. It looks like they already know that exactly to preserve the sustainability of the water environments in that age. And this is clearly within the shop runs in children, right. So for, for grace, there has all those get been some up. So please allow me to consider that there was another reaction concerning this declaration from, from us. But we have here to agree on something which is important when it comes to environment of sustainability. We cannot to jump on the techs environmental sustainability is a need for the commodity to it. These are Global Challenge and to take some, some brave decisions and were going to make those rate is in the interest of smoothing tension. So easing tensions with your large, historical neighbour. Of course youve had many tension so many years. Would it be prudent to, would use your military presence in the likes of the island of costs, for instance, according to, to key a. M, you know, under the 1947 peach tree t shouldnt be any greek troops there in the 1st place. Not in my eyes, this is a misreading of the truth is it allows you to know im, im, im a lawyer and then i cut that make and i can read, treat this the trophies that we preserve the necessary military in order to defend ourselves. And i think there is not a Single Person that would consider that we would have any swords or for, for offense investigations against the to with you. Um we are relatively small nation, but um, you know that we have to defend ourselves. We have to exercise a fully fledged policy or for, for a National Defense. And this is where were going to do that in an ideal woods. I would say is that obviously we would need to have in the army. But given the fact that there is an army side on the nose from various neighborhoods, i think that its necessary to have a strong, okay, and just have an army also spend perhaps more than any of the country on many, many countries. I mean, back in 2022, greece was spending more in defense than any other e u country as a portion of g d p. Well, those are the 2 percent special required as a, as a native member in your opinion, continued to be money well spent given recent economic tumble increase. Of course the country is recovering well, but nevertheless, is this money well spent fuel focus . There are 2 questions here, whether were doing when and whether we should do any nation, im the different spending. So i wouldnt take a lot to have to start with. What i suggest is yes or having a National Defense expenditure, which is above the average. And i have to tell you that this is a totally explicable, if someone reads history. Unfortunately, were not the luxembourg, and were not living in a very peaceful neighborhood. And the truth is that we have to be very well prepared. Greece is a country with the greatest seesaw in europe. We have a very large c, so we have to defend our islands. We have to defend our region. So obviously we need to do some addition. Im not Strong Defense spending, whether this is web desert, i will tell you that this is a democratic summons if the electron says that its money well spent, they need these website and then these governments has for the 2nd consecutive time, a huge electron victory over type 41 percent of the elect sort of voted in favor of our program. So i will tell you that there is a total of respects of our program now on the other side of the core. And i would say, so the flux, thats uh, research doing extremely well in the economic sector, allow us to just invest. And thats going to be obviously a National Defense, but only another aspect in associated state and also in investments. Greece is expected to have the growth rate of 3 percent next in these kind of year 2024 was bigger ego, but its going to be 0. 8. So you can see that we have a 3 time i pray to do the fees on, on bruce the other state. So we are allowed to do some spending and indeed the maximum of our spending close to social needs and investments. What, what does it, what does it mean to you . To no longer be perceived as the economic sick mind of your, to this a good sort of self confidence to start with that process that we have a huge start balance. We have the 10 years of for file state, the policies we have, we had we, we were very close to actually get out of the google p. And you know, because of our fiscal situation. Um and we have to go through a series of, of a very unfortunate incidence, including the persistence of population we increase population gathering, a very difficult situation. One step away from the European Union. We model survive and nice thing breaks peoples folds up and high level of maturity too. And when it came to the crucial 2019 elections, the people voted for the government that would bring box risk into normality and bring back pres into the european family. And now were very proud to say that we have a significantly reduced dial depths that we have significantly increase or to, to be and we have a book, a move on. We have a very sustainable environment for investments. We have a 35 percent increase on the exports and we have a 30 percent increase on direct for any investments. And im proud again to say that some could know some companies have come to reason the last 5 years, including a pfizer will be almost in meta the only invest in bridge because they think that rese provides a very strongly foundation for investments. And i would like to actually quoting for through your um, trying them to potential investors to check out the grease because this is going to be the economy, meet our goal in terms of investments for the future. Probably briefly as a last question, i want to put this to you because you seem very, very aware of the need for diplomacy. The need to ease tensions. That is part of a difficult time. How optimistic all you of the europe that we know remaining stable as we have a problem needs. And the problem is that, um, there is unusual for, for the way we take decisions with decision making. Mechanisms and International Organizations seems to be quite obsolete at the moment. What happened was in the afternoon of the 2nd world war, we had an international uh, uh, not where we have to get together. But we had to develop also a national voyage with International Organizations. And that led to the victor rights policy and the Security Council of the United Nations and choose a European Union. Victor right . Possibly has been a huge snag in order to gets to where to adoption of decision. And i think this is going to be the problem for the years to come. The fact that we have in a, an International Decision making quits, prohibits this stage the international uh, organization from taking decisions that are resolved. So we ended at cookchildrens russian and we have 3 visits that way we take decisions and above all, we have to put the, the, the global above the, the states we have to seeing more of the future. We have to think more about the generations to come. We have to sing about share challenges such as the climate crisis, the food and security. And we have to think about the children of, of, on your guys kind of for treat this. Thank you for talking to how just if it goes out funding the why have american evangelicals become his real strongest back or is us president joe find the right to stand with israel with no red line . As long as us support continues . Is there anything that can stop is real, solve on concept, from going on in . Definitely a quizzical look at us politics. The bottom line a just to read his spend most of his life on the war to use the fisherman just like others and his family. But things are different now for when he was a boy in 2022 long days, mcats would declared and endangered species from the family at the school today hes taking us to the band. So if the only stop leak in central denver would. Yeah, he sees that he used to see monkeys in droves, him hunting for crap. I down there the more now. So thats why i dont see that time wants to be. I mean molnar, calling me about the power while the on the 9th and only logan carnegie. The monkeys are frightened for good reason. Traffic is got you and sell them to the highest bidder. To buy medical research. This black market creed, not only indeed just was probably me populations, but boots Public Health of risk. Because unlike captive bred monkeys, theres no guarantee the animals of that engine free. The, [000 00 00;00] the color that im the saw the attain. This isnt use our life from the coming up in the next 60 minutes and tell them we have thousands gathered to demand. A deal is done to release all the captives held in garza the does say kind of thing. Instead they just want to go home as negotiating teams, nissan,