Male Loverdos: Regarding Turkey’s attitude, one must be very careful what one says in public

“The decision for Finland and Sweden to receive the status of a candidate country and for it to now be up to the national parliaments to ratify their accession to NATO, has the characteristics of a historic decision” said the head of the PASOK-KINAL Foreign Affairs department, Andreas Loverdos, after the end of the meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias, as part of the regular briefing of the parliamentary parties on current foreign policy issues.

As Andreas Loverdos pointed out, this decision overshadows any other fact that has been discussed in our country at the moment and he added: “So, I stay on this. It is wrong for the discussion to deviate to other issues and because I was informed about the exact text of Agreement signed in Madrid, especially on these issues, and especially regarding the attitude of Turkey, one must be very careful and very informed before saying anything in the public debate.”

In this context, he noted that the decision for Finland and Sweden is a response to what is happening today in Ukraine, as a result of the Russian invasion, and because these two countries were reluctant before the invasion to join NATO, the accession them in this organism means that they feel a form of strong protection.

During the meeting with Nikos Dendias, the head of PASOK-KINAL’s Foreign Affairs department, as he mentioned in his statement, had the opportunity for some time to discuss issues related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the developments there, the issues concerning the West Balkans and in general the enlargement of NATO. “Obviously, the issues related to Turkey. And in the climate in which these discussions usually take place between me and Mr. Dendias, I had the opportunity to learn about some things that I was not aware of,” he added.