Closely watched visit to Athens by Saudi FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud

Bilateral but also multilateral issues were on the agenda on Tuesday during a meeting in Athens between the foreign ministers of Greece and Saudi Arabia, with the Greek side not missing an opportunity to heap criticism on what it increasingly considers the regional “troublemaker”, namely, official Turkey.

In greeting his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud, Greek FM Nikos Dendias called Ankara’s positions vis-à-vis its NATO counterpart Greece as an “epitome of irrationality.”

Dendias added that official Turkey’s belligerence and rhetoric against its western neighbor has “has reached a level we haven’t seen for years,” with the Erdogan administration systematically misrepresenting the truth and flatly ignoring  international law, especially the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“Turkey threatens Greece with war if we apply our inalienable right of expanding our territorial waters, as is explicitly foreseen by UNCLOS … Turkey has arrayed across from our islands the largest landing craft force fleet in the Mediterranean, while demanding that we demilitarize our islands, in other words, to relinquish our recognized right to self-defense, as foreseen in the UN Charter,” he added.

Beyond Turkey, the Greek side announced that a Saudi Arabian delegation would visit the extreme northeast region of Thrace and the port city of Alexandroupoli.

Dendias also expressed satisfaction for Riyadh’s intent to establish an economic affairs liaison office in Athens.

On his part, Prince al Saud emphasized that “I assured the foreign minister that we are interested in strengthening defense, cultural, and trade relations with Greece … we discussed how they can be developed and enforced in terms of investments, in order to be able to reach a point we want and reflect our very good relations.”