Speaking at the session on "Effective diplomacy in unstable times: The European strategy for peace and stability", Dendias noted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine constituted a turning point for European security, highlighting even more urgently the need to safeguard international norms.
"The questioning of these rules has been a painful sudden awakening for many Western countries," he said, noting that "for Cyprus and Greece, this awakening is not new."
Referring to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Dendias noted that "we learned to live for many years, at least since 1974, Greece and Cyprus, with the questioning of these rules. We learned to live with an existential threat."
On the issue of casus belli, he said that Greece is the only democracy on the planet that lives "under a constant, articulated threat of war."
Referring to an upsurge in Turkish aggressive rhetoric and an increase in provocations on the ground, Mr. Dendias noted that "until recently a very large part of the international community considered this challenge to norms and legitimacy in our region as a somewhat peripheral, perhaps sometimes indifferent problem."
However, as he pointed out, the Russian invasion of Ukraine makes the consequences of revisionism an experience for the entire international community.
Citing as common elements of countries experiencing revisionism, the threat to use force, the use of force itself, the occupation of foreign territories, hybrid attacks and the instrumentalization of the refugee issue, Dendias noted that the answer to these challenges is through the deepening of European integration.
The great challenge facing the EU at the moment is to remain united in this difficult international context, overcoming the challenges of energy, inflation and contestation, the Greek Foreign Minister argued. "And to jointly take the decisions needed to protect its own external borders and to continue to impose sanctions on those who violate international law," he added.
"In other words, to underline with this practice its structural diversity in the face of heterodox revisionisms of other powers. And to convince itself of the need to support its members when they are threatened."
In conclusion, Mr. Dendias referred to the great importance of Greece's regional and wider international partnerships, as well as the faithful and absolute application of international law on which its foreign policy is based.
Source: CNA
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