Greek FM Holds Talks With Several Counterparts Ahead of Erdogan Meeting on Tues.

Greece’s foreign affairs minister, George Gerapetritis, will participate in Tuesday’s closely watched meeting on the sidelines of the 79^th UN General Assembly in New York between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to the foreign ministry in Athens, the country’s top diplomat will then attend a meeting with the foreign ministers of Cyprus, and Egypt, along with a one-on-one meeting with his Egyptian counterpart.

Other meetings on the Greek FM’s itinerary on Tuesday include contacts with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross and separate meetings with his counterparts from Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Lebanon, and Yemen.

In the evening he will attend a reception hosted by US State Secretary Antony Blinken for NATO and European Union foreign ministers.

On Monday, Gerapetritis told praised Athens’ participation on the UNSC for the 2025-2026 period.

Referring to Tuesday’s meetings with FMs from the western Balkans, he reminded that Greece continues to support the region’s inclusion in the EU.

He said a prospect for EU admission must remain consistently active, Gerapetritis said, something he stressed to the group entitled “Friends of the Western Balkans” and later in his one-on-one meeting with North Macedonia FM Timcho Mucunski.

“Greece will remain at the forefront of efforts to enlarge Europe. We are a strong point of stability in the Balkans and in the east Mediterranean, and we will continue to be. International law will continue to guide us, and our emphasis will always be on this,” he said.

The meeting with Mucunski was held in Greece’s permanent UN mission in the United Nations, with bilateral, cross-border and regional collaboration discussed, while Gerapetritis underlined that a positive outcome in terms of western Balkan states’ EU course to the EU – including North Macedonia – is dependent on the fulfilment of obligations emanating from the EU acquis and international law, which include adherence to international agreements such as the Prespa Agreement and good-neighborly relations.

Gerapetritis later met with the foreign minister of Bolivia, Celinda Sosa Lunda at Greece’s Permanent UN Mission.

The Greek minister thanked his Bolivian counterpart for her country’s support of Greece’s bid for a temporary seat on the UNSC.

Finally, Gerapetritis met with Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, where the former emphasized an urgent need for a diplomatic solution to the Middle East conflict.