The Minister of National Defence Mr. Panos Panagiotopoulos met today with the Prime Minister of Israel Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, during the first day of his official visit to Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Panagiotopoulos discussed on matters of defence cooperation between the two countries, as well as matters of broader interest.

The Minister of National Defence Mr. Panagiotopoulos, after the conclusion of their meeting, made the following statement:

“In order for the great national effort made during this very difficult period by the Greek people, headed by the Government, and for us to escape from the financial dead-ends and stand on our feet, we must have ensured a set and stable environment of security, good neighbouring relations, peaceful coexistence and cooperation within the international and regional environment Greece belongs to.

It is this policy, the policy of security for our country, which I am here in Israel to promote, by order given by the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. I would like to thank the Prime Minister of the State of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu for a very fruitful and useful discussion we had. We covered before anything else matters of my pertinence, matters of defence cooperation between the two countries. We also covered matters of broader interest, as well as the issue of hydrocarbons.

As far as issues within my purview are concerned, we are ready to further develop our good relations of defence cooperation, among others in the field of cooperation, armaments production, mutual military programmes, joint military exercises and other fields we will localise tomorrow, at my meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of defence Ehud Barak. The two peoples, the people of Greece and the people of Israel are two peoples with glorious traditions and great civilisations. The western civilisation is principally based on these two peoples, which can and should be close to each other, since in their long historic presence they have come through critical phases and difficult circumstances, yet they have proved that they can stand up and overcome the hammer and anvil of History”.