Mitsotakis: Diplomatic “fever” with back-to-back contacts – Middle East, migration & Ukraine on the table

A ten-day period of dense summit contacts abroad begins for Kyriakos Mitsotakis today and will conclude at the end of next week. With an eye on critical international developments such as the situation in the Middle East, the Ukraine front, and the management of migration, Mitsotakis begins his contacts today from Dubrovnik, Croatia and the Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit.

The European Commission will begin its visit to Ukraine from the European Commission’s European Commission headquarters in Dnipropetrovsk, where he will start his visit to Ukraine from today.

It is recalled that the “premiere” of this meeting was held last year in Athens, when Ukrainian President Zelensky visited Greece for the first time. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel were also present at that summit, and it was the first time that the leaders of the Western Balkans met the Presidents of Ukraine and Moldova.

Support for Ukraine is expected to dominate the discussions at the Dubrovnik Summit, ahead of the first European Council meeting of the new European cycle to be held in Brussels on 17 and 18 October. From the composition of the leaders of the wider region, however, Tayyip Erdogan will not be present, who did not participate in the corresponding summit last year either, sending Hakan Fidan instead.

Mitsotakis will return from Croatia tomorrow and will be followed on Friday by Paphos, Cyprus, where the Summit of the leaders of the MED9, the Mediterranean countries, is being convened. The main topic of discussion at the Euro-Mediterranean Summit is expected to be migration, as the external border countries call for the implementation of the EU’s Migration Pact, as well as support measures to stem migration flows. Of course, the debate on migration will also be held in the light of the extreme tensions in the Middle East, in the wider neighbourhood of several countries. Mr Mitsotakis’ position is clear that Israel has an inalienable right to self-defence, but a ceasefire is required in order to prevent the war from spreading.

Next up on Saturday is the meeting on Ukraine at the Ramstein base in Germany, although yesterday US President Biden cancelled his participation at the last minute due to the impending hurricane in Florida. Present again, of course, will be Mr Zelenski, who is expected to present his plan for his next moves on the chessboard of war. Mr Mitsotakis’ last stop next week will be Brussels, starting on Wednesday with the EU-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting. Naturally, the Middle East will dominate the discussion, while the following day the first summit of this year’s political season begins, with the issues of migration and European competitiveness on the agenda.