Minister for Foreign Affairs

Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis traveled to Brussels on Sunday to take part in the EU's Foreign Affairs Council meeting on Monday.

The meeting will focus on the crisis in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the European Economy Security Strategy, reported the Foreign Ministry.

After jointly attending the humanitarian conference convened by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides returned to Athens for the inaugural Greece-Cyprus High-Level Cooperation Council. The Council is scheduled to commence at 12 p.m., with joint press statements to follow.

Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis and his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, have agreed to revive high-level contacts between their countries and seek "new approaches" to problems as part of efforts to improve ties between the two NATO allies who are at loggerheads over a string of decades-old disputes.

Greece's newly appointed defense minister has welcomed a de-escalation of tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, expressing hope this would lead to a "climate of trust" without directly referring to Turkey.

Defense Minister Yaşar Güler and his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias, have agreed in a phone call on July 5 to resume confidence-building meetings halted last year, the Turkish Defense Ministry has announced.

Despite his professed intransigence and publicly stated refusal to meet with then-Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apparently allowed communication between his officials and their Greek counterparts in order to avoid a major crisis between the two countries, Nikos Dendias, foreign minister in the 2019-23 Mitsotakis government, told Kathimerini.

Theodoros Pangalos, a former Greek foreign minister known for his undiplomatic outbursts and on whose watch Greece suffered one of its most embarrassing foreign policy debacles in 1999, has died. He was 84.

Pangalos' family said on Twitter that he died on Wednesday "peacefully at home, surrounded by his family and close associates."

Theodoros Pangalos, a former foreign minister with Socialist PASOK in the 1990s, died on Wednesday, aged 84. The news was announced by his family on his Twitter account. 

"Our beloved Theodoros Pangalos died today peacefully at home with his family and close associates by his side. Have a good journey our beloved. We will always remember you with love," the tweet said. 

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias is scheduled to attend the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) of the European Union in Brussels on Monday, as confirmed by a statement from the Foreign Ministry. The meeting will address several important topics, including Russia's war on Ukraine and the situation in the Horn of Africa region.

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias reiterated on Wednesday that the newly elected ethnic Greek mayor of Himare in Albania, Fredi Beleris, must be released and that he does not understand the continuation of his detention.