Prime Minister sends strong message to Skopje

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ trip to the United States for the NATO anniversary summit was dominated, for the most part, by his strong messages to North Macedonia, both in his speech at the meeting and in the press conference that followed, where he went further, leaving all possibilities open.

Specifically, when asked about Article 19 of the Prespa Agreement, which states that in the event of a violation of the agreement, there can be recourse to the UN Secretary-General and then to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Mitsotakis did not rule anything out.

“The agreements have to be respected and this is something that I stressed at the NATO plenary. This is something that I think all our allies understand,” he said, adding that “we want North Macedonia to take steps towards European rapprochement, but this requires respect for international law and respect for the agreements that the country has signed, obviously.”

Mitsotakis concluded by saying that one way or another, the leaders in Skopje will understand this.

“In any case, Greece will not reveal at this time the weapons at its disposal to respond to a possible insistence on this tactic by the leaders of the neighboring country,” he noted.

On the Cyprus issue, on which he called for the resumption of negotiations, Mitsotakis said he had nothing to say about rumors of a multilateral meeting on the issue in the near future.

“As I told you, I don’t even know the details of the content of Ms. Holguin’s (UN envoy) report. What is imperative at this time is that discussions between the two communities begin,” he stressed.

He also denounced as fake news accusations by opposition parties in Greece that he had admitted in an interview to “shortcomings in the country’s national defense” due to sending aid to Ukraine.

“I never said that. I would like to take this opportunity to remind all those who spread such false information of two facts: the first is that Greece has surplus equipment to support Ukraine, always with the agreement of the General Staff of National Defense and the Ministry of National Defense, and I have said many times that the actions we are taking do not in any way call into question the country’s deterrent capacity.”