Q: Mr. Minister, I would like your opinion about the message of “MEDUSA”, which has been taking place continuously since 2015.

E. APOSTOLAKIS: We are here with my friend, the Defence Minister of Cyprus, Mr. Angelides, the Defence Minister of Egypt, Mr. Zaki, the Chief of Hellenic National Defence General Staff, the Chief of Hellenic Navy General Staff, and the Chief of Hellenic Air Force General Staff to attend the final phase of exercise “MEDUSA”, which was a landing operation on a beach near Alexandria.

We confirmed that we have made excellent progress in our cooperation. We started with very simple scenarios and have reached a point where we can implement very advanced and complex ones. The cooperation among the personnel has become easier, because they now know each other. And, of course, the message we send is that states that share the same values and principles and face the same dangers cooperate in order to ensure peace and security in the region and, at the same time, to create the conditions for economic growth and prosperity in the East Mediterranean region.

I believe our cooperation is excellent. These trilateral cooperations in which we participate, Greece-Cyprus-Egypt and Greece-Cyprus-Israel have worked perfectly and we have agreed to continue in the same manner. Each time, the exercise will be even more advanced and the messages we send are exactly what I just told you.

We are all close, we cooperate, trying to and keeping the region safe, laying the foundation for economic growth and security in the region.

Q: Will there be another cooperation like “MEDUSA” involving Greece-Cyprus-Israel?

E. APOSTOLAKIS: We do exercise with the Israelis, we have a similar cooperation which is even more advanced, with ships sailing from Greece to Israel, in combined operations, quite advanced, and it is usually an aeronautical exercise. There is a similar cooperation in this framework.