Foreign Secretary Remarks at the Greek MFA
Speaking alongside her Greek counterpart, George Gerapetritis, and whilst being hosted by the Government of Greece, the Foreign Secretary delivered the following.
Speaking alongside her Greek counterpart, George Gerapetritis, and whilst being hosted by the Government of Greece, the Foreign Secretary said:
Thank you very much for welcoming me to Athens.
It is a huge pleasure for me to be here as the first Foreign Secretary in eight years to meet my counterpart in Athens, the birthplace of democracy, and it reflects our deep historic relationship.
The close partnership that our countries have had over very many years, the shared cultural history, but also the shared maritime history, the shared economic interests that we have, and shared concerns around both foreign policy and our bilateral relationship.
That, in fact, in the three months since I was appointed as Foreign Secretary, Giorgos and I have had very many discussions at the UN at NATO in London, at Manama, and now here in Athens as well.
And that was, I think, the sign of how closely we value this partnership and how much we have shared interests that we are pursuing, both as fellow members of the UN Security Council and NATO, but also with shared interests in so many different areas and some of the issues that we have discussed today, around Ukraine, the Middle East Africa, and also around migration.
We have obviously spent much time discussing the situation in Ukraine and our strong support and solidarity for the people of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression and the importance of securing a just and lasting peace with a strong and sovereign Ukraine. And I see two presidents who are pursuing peace at the moment, President Trump and President Zelensky, but one president, President Putin, who is still seeking to escalate conflict and war, and that is why it is so important that we make progress on mobilising the Russian sovereign assets in order to be able to support Ukraine, and also to be able to put increased pressure on Russia, to properly bring them to the table and to pursue peace.
It’s why just this week, the government has taken the step now to enable the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and to put the steps in place for Roman Abramovich to now honour the commitment that he made three years ago towards the people of Ukraine and their humanitarian needs.
We have also discussed today the work that both our countries are doing to support peace in the Middle East, to support the continuing but fragile ceasefire in Gaza, and to recognise the real challenges and pressures in the West Bank as well, and the importance of making progress, particularly as winter draws in, to be able to increase the humanitarian aid that is desperately needed in Gaza, and to be able to get the crossings opened and more aid in.
We’ve discussed too, the horrendous humanitarian crisis taking place in Sudan, and how we need to build now the same level of international energy and commitment to see action in Sudan that we built internationally to reach the ceasefire in Gaza and to make sure that countries from across the world can pursue an end to the atrocities and to get a humanitarian truce and a ceasefire in Sudan.
And then finally, we had long discussions around the shared work we can do to tackle illegal migration and to tackle the criminal gangs who make huge profits from dangerous boat crossings that undermine our border security and put lives at risk, and how we can together do more work on upstream prevention work in North Africa.
Today, the UK is announcing an additional £1.5m for the North Africa Migration and Development Programme to tackle some of the root causes of illegal migration.
We talked about some of the progress that Greece has made in reducing illegal crossings, but also some of the progress the UK has made in increasing returns, for example, the 30% increase in returns of failed asylum seekers in the first year of the Labour government as well. And we talked about the importance of returns agreements, hubs and also the cooperation alongside some of the further work that the EU is doing to tackle illegal migration and criminal gangs, some of the work the UK has been doing with France to increase returns and have new approaches as well.
But as part of this, the UK and Greece have agreed a joint migration plan that brings together their cooperation in that fight against organized immigration crime and the prevention of illegal migration in this is part of the work that I am doing, and the UK is doing to see some of these issues as international issues as well as domestic issues, alongside the domestic reforms that the Home Secretary is taking forward.
Because in so many of these areas, whether it be around Ukraine, whether it be around security, whether it be around our economic prosperity and the increasing trade that we want to see, or whether it be around tackling migration, we know that we are stronger as a result of the partnerships we build abroad, those are the important partnerships that make us stronger at home. That is why our partnership with Greece is so important.
Thank you very much.