“Only with a cool head will the tension between Greece and Russia be overcome” says Papadimoulis

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In international relations, the best policy is to keep a cool head and avoid entering a vicious cycle of bad-tempered reactions, European Parliament Vice-President and head of SYRIZA’s group of MEPs Dimitris Papadimoulis said on Friday, talking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency’s (ANA) radio station “Praktorio 104.9 FM” about recent developments in Greece’s relationship and Russia.

“The message on the part of Athens is clear. Every time there are actions that violate our national sovereignty and harm our national interests, every time there is inappropriate intervention by third countries in our interior, we will take the required measures. At the same time, we are sending a clear message to Moscow that Greece wants to dial down the tension seen in recent days, because we consider that this serves the interests of both sides,” he said.

He noted that Greece’s present government has adopted a multilateral foreign policy with several dimensions and wishes to strengthen Greek-Russian ties, since it is steadfastly opposed to an immoderate worsening of relations with Russia, either with Greece or the European Union.

Papadimoulis said that there had been a “first reaction from the Russian side with the deletion of an awkward tweet on the part of the Russian embassy” and also appeared confident that relations could be quickly restored, pointing out that Russia’s relations with Turkey had deteriorated sharply over the shooting down of a Russian plane and were now “quite close diplomatically”.

Referring to the Prespes Agreement, he noted that this has wide support in the internationaol community and that support within the country was strengthening with every passing day as a more logical, forward-looking analysis gained traction over the immediate emotional responses based on poor knowledge of present and historical facts.

Source: AMNA