Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis Meets with Wang Yi

On October 27, 2021 local time, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with visiting State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Athens.

Wang Yi first conveyed the cordial greetings from Chinese leaders to Mitsotakis and said that China and Greece are the origins and representatives of the two civilizations of the East and the West, and the peoples of the two countries are friendly toward each other. The stable and sound development of China-Greece relations amidst the volatile and uncertain international situation hinges on the fact that we can draw wisdom from our thousands of years of civilizations, adopt a peaceful and inclusive attitude toward each other's development, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation from a long-term and strategic perspective. The China-Greece Year of Culture and Tourism will be officially launched this year, which will bring new vitality to our bilateral relations. A few days ago, the flame lighting and torch relay for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games was successfully completed in Greece, injecting positive energy into the Olympic spirit. China is willing to work with Greece to advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, build the Port of Piraeus into a world-class one, accelerate the construction of the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line and expand cooperation in new areas such as renewable energy.

Mitsotakis asked Wang Yi to convey his sincere greetings to Chinese leaders and said Greece attaches great importance to developing relations with China and never agrees with any anti-China or Chinaphobia rhetoric. With the joint efforts of both sides, the cooperation on the Port of Piraeus project has achieved great success and become a landmark project of win-win cooperation. Greece is willing to take the launch of the China-Greece Year of Culture and Tourism as an opportunity to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields. He welcomes more Chinese tourists to visit Greece after the pandemic is over. The Greek side highly appreciates the important achievements China has made in the field of environmental protection, and is willing to expand bilateral cooperation in green development and scientific and technological innovation, and jointly tackle global challenges such as climate change.

Mitsotakis said that Greece and China have extensive and profound civilizations and share many similarities. Our civilizations can inspire the settlement of ongoing geopolitical conflicts. A philosophy forum on Aristotle and Confucius will be held in Greece this year. He hopes this forum will serve as a platform to deepen the exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations.

The two sides also exchanged views of China-EU relations. Wang Yi said that there are no fundamental conflicts of interest or geopolitical conflicts between China and Europe. Both sides support multi-polarization and democratic international relations as well as the promotion of multilateralism. Both sides also support the United Nations in playing its core role and the political settlement of regional disputes. China and Europe are partners instead of rivals, and the cooperation between the two sides far outweigh the differences. Both sides should revitalize China-EU relations through equal dialogue in the spirit of mutual respect. He hopes that Greece will play a constructive role in the stable development of China-EU ties. Mitsotakis said that Greece supports the EU in developing friendly relations with China and he believes that Europe and China can achieve long-term and sound development of bilateral relations through adequate communication and exchanges.

On the same day, Wang Yi also held talks with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.