Petsas: Mitsotakis to meet Macron on Thursday in Corsica

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday in Corsica. As government spokesperson Stelios Petsas announced on Monday, the meeting will be held before the start of the EU Mediterranean States Summit meeting, which will take place the same day with the participation of France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Portugal and Malta.

Additionally, Petsas said that on Monday Mitsotakis spoke on the phone with European Council President Charles Michel and he announced that Michel will visit Athens on September 15.

Unity is a national duty

Greece, as all its citizens understand, is facing two major external challenges, Petsas said at the press briefing on Monday, referring the pandemic and the Turkish provocativeness.

"It is a national duty to be united and not have divisive arguments. Courage and not pettiness, responsibility and not populism, truth not lies," he said, adding that Turkey is directing threats of war at Greece almost every day, and that Athens is responding with political, diplomatic and operational readiness and "is "determined to do whatever necessary to protect our sovereign rights".

He repeated that Greece's message is clear and, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said many times, the provocations must stop before talks can begin. "Once the threats stop, the exploratory talks will begin in order to find a solution to the only pending issue [between Greece and Turkey], which is the delimitation of our maritime zones or a joing agreement to refer the issue to the The Hague," he said.