Hi prime minister pleasure to welcome you to Canada and thank you so much for uh your time today well the pleasure is mine this is the first time a Greek Prime Minister has visited Canada in almost 41 years in in four decades why now well it’s been a long time I guess
That’s one um you know One Good Reason uh you know we’re very close Partners who work together on numerous of geopolitical issues I think this is a right time to further strengthen our economic ties as you know Greece has been U you know um making up I think impressive comeback economically we’ve
Left the crisis year behind us and I feel this is a good time to make the case also to the Canadian business community that they should take a you know a good look at Greece and consider deploying Capital there I I do want to talk about the economic relationship and
Those economic ties and in particular zero in on the trading relationship especially to start off with with respect to Ceda the free trade agreement between the EU and Canada there’s been some big stumbling blocks lately lately namely just a few days ago the senate in France uh voted against ratifying
It when will Greece ratify CA well we hopefully we hopefully we’ll ratify it uh soon we still have some outstanding issues regarding you know some products whose geographical origin um uh or particular nature will protect such as feta for example want to make sure that
Feta cheese when it is sold in Canada is the actual feta cheese uh and you know only Greece technically has the right um to to produce feta but I think once these issues ises are going to be sorted out you know we’ll be very very happy to
Ratify the agreement uh in principle I’m very much in favor of of these types of free trade agreements although I understand that there are some difficulties with with other countries but we’ll sort out our you know our differences you are though as you said you are in principle supportive of Ceda
And and I reason I asked very specifically is because there is growing sentiment in uh certain aspects of other countries particularly in the case of France for example from Farmers about liberalized trade and negative impacts that they perceive you’re not I I know in in principle I think that if if we
Want to sort out issues which are sensitive uh to all involved parties free trade agreements work for everyone but again for example we have a very you know sensitive issue when it comes to you know products uh which are of Greek origin which uh according to European
Law only Greece can produce uh and we feel that the same sort of rules need to apply uh within the context of a free trade agreement so particular sensitivities need to be taken into uh into consideration and do you anticipate that the issues that that you’re referencing will be resolved anytime
Soon and the reason I ask is you had a minister here last year and the year before he he made the same comment essentially once those are resolved we remain in support and we will ratify but that was well let let’s hope that’s going to be one of the issues I’ll
Discuss with the Prime Minister but again I don’t want this to monopolize uh our agenda we have a very broad agenda and I do need to point out that uh um Canadian companies have been active investors uh in Greece and they actually invested during uh the financial crisis
So if they did so during the financial crisis there is an additional reason why they would do so uh um much more right now you talked about um Renewables and sources of energy and I know that’s been an especially pertinent discussion in Europe ever since Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine and the transition away from Russian gas we’ve had other European leaders here in Canada say if it were more available to them they would be interested in Canada’s LNG liquefied natural gas is that same for you that’s the same for Greece uh we are u a big
Entry point for LG not just for the Greek market but also uh for the Balkans uh for Eastern Europe theoretically we could even Supply a Ukraine uh we have a floating storage and regasification unit up in northern Greece which is coming online and of course the point of this
Infrastructure is not just to serve the Greek market but also to serve uh our neighbors towards the north so in principle yes we are very interested in obtaining LNG at competitive prices as fast as we go in terms of our renewable penetration we will still need a reliable source of electricity and for
Us for Greece we don’t have nuclear we’re we’ve complet practically moving away completely moving away from coal so that leaves natural gas for the foreseeable future uh as a significant source of U um energy uh for the production of electricity is Canada given the current geopolitical status of things an ideal
Partner in that do you think could be an ideal partner AB you know uh absolutely and uh again Canada is is a country which we share you know so many so many values and again as I pointed out at the beginning the the Greek Canadian Community serves as a natural um bridge
Between our uh two countries uh so uh we’re cooperating with with Canada on you know geopolitical issues you know Ukraine uh Gaza I think we see eye to eye uh on many of the challenges that we face and of course it is up to the liberal democracies of the West to
Ensure that we have a common front uh against the Russian uh aggression and Canada is an indispensable partner in this effort I want to ask about that front because right from the start Greece has been unequivocally supportive of Ukraine you recently traveled to Odessa and there was a series of you
Know very troubling things that that happened while you were there did that experience change or or impart anything on your view of what’s happening and what has to happen in response to Russia’s agression I think it reinforced my belief that we need to support Ukraine in order to help the ukrainians
Defend themselves uh I mean then it is is very clear that uh uh we need to do more um in terms of assistance we’ve made it very clear uh to the ukrainians that we want to help they know what we can do and what we cannot do and the
Same is true for uh many other European countries and one of the topics that we are discussing at the European Council is how we can how can we help Ukraine um sort of uh make sure that they have the necessary equipment to defend themselves for example we’ve made pledges regarding
Shells um uh because they are short of artillery shells and we need to make sure that we help them uh in that uh Direction but once you go to Ukraine especially in Odessa you you understand that for us it maybe just a few hours in
What is a war zone and we actually had sort of rather troubling experience of witnessing a a missile explosion not too far from where we were in the Odessa Port but for those people this is your everyday uh reality and we have an obligation uh as liberal Western democracies to stand up against
Aggression and to make it very clear that any change of Border uh through um violence can in principle not be accepted Europe is very unified to a large degree on this issue there is a large amount of Aid currently stuck in the United States how concerning is that
To you it is concerning and I do hope that uh uh the US Congress is going to resolve this issue we did our part and I think we’re also sending a signal um to the us that they also need to uh sort of um overcome all these you
Know sometimes procedural delays and and deliver when it comes to Financial assistance it it also took us some time but we managed to reach a unanimous agreement um to support um Ukraine with 50 billion euros over the next five four years this is a significant amount of
Money uh that uh keeps the Ukrainian um economy functioning and I would hope that the US takes note of what has happened in uh in Europe and that will they will also step up to the plate and deliver the necessary assistance as soon as possible gree the US Europe and
Canada are all key members obviously of of NATO as well which factors into this aspect of of the discussion uh there is a lot of conversation in this country about defense spending targets your country exceeds NATO’s defense spending Target currently does that Target matter in your view of course it doesn’t
Matter uh we are spending and we’ve been spending ever since we joined NATO more than 2% uh of our GDP on defense we have done it because we have our particular geographical and geopolitical challenges uh but it is important for all other countries to reach a 2% Target
As quickly as possible and especially for European um countries I think it is imperative um to send a signal that we will be able to defend ourselves and that we need to spend not just more but also to be able to be smarter in terms of our defense spending and this of
Course also uh relates to um being able to streamline you know procurement rules when it comes to um defense purchases it means better cooperation amongst our European Defense Industries but at the end of the day NATO is only as strong as a some of its parts uh and the more
Every single country spends on defense the stronger NATO will be you mentioned the imperative for Europe does the imperative in your view also exist for Canada because Canada does not yet even have a plan to get to 2% I think that uh every NATO country should get to 2% as
Quickly as possible uh and of course I uh I do uh understand there’s always a Temptation you know um not to spend money on defense and spend it on um on other priorities but you know in our case we never had that luxury uh we always spend more than 2% on defense and
Then we also had to make sure we found enough money uh for all other uh budgetary items but to the extent that this is a collective goal of the NATO Alliance I think it is important for all countries to reach that goal okay I’ll leave it on that note prime minister I’m
Out of time thank you very much thank you
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks about Greece’s economic comeback and what it will take to ratify CETA.
Subscribe to CTV News to watch more videos:
Connect with CTV News:
For live updates and latest headlines visit:
For breaking news, fast, download the CTV News App:
Must-watch stories and full programs at
CTV News on TikTok:
CTV News on X (formerly Twitter):
CTV News on Reddit:
CTV News on LinkedIn:
—
CTV News is Canada’s most-watched news organization both locally and nationally, and has a network of national, international, and local news operations.
they did the math