Greece will stand by Turkey and Syria was the message sent by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis when he attended the European Council in Brussels, which is taking place today and tomorrow.

The prime minister again expressed his grief on behalf of the entire Greek people for the tragic losses, and reiterated that Greece will stand by the two peoples.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis focused particularly on the issue of illegal immigration, stressing that there are strong increasing trends.

As Greece has said, it will continue to fight so the EU does more to protect its external borders. Kyriakos Mitsotakis also said that Athens claims additional European resources in order to have all the means at its disposal, while he also emphasized the importance of obstacles such as the fence on the Evros border.

The prime minister called on the EU to speed up return policies for those without asylum to return to their countries of origin.

Referring to Ukraine, he emphasized that at today’s Summit the leaders will welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and express their full support to Kyiv. “The support of the European family must be taken for granted,” he stressed and went on to say that Ukraine must be able to negotiate a just peace with the Russian aggressor on the terms it will set.

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