Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) begins a three-day trip to Greece and Cyprus on Monday. The talks with her counterparts Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos and Charalambos Petrides will focus in particular on the issue of migration in the eastern Mediterranean. As the Ministry of Defense announced in advance, the Ukraine conflict and the situation in the Western Balkans are also on the agenda. Tanner will also visit Austrian UN soldiers in Cyprus.
“Greece bears the main burden at the EU’s external borders, especially in border management tasks,” emphasized Tanner, referring to her first visit to Athens. For Austria, this also means less immigration to Europe, emphasized the minister before the meeting with her Greek colleague Panagiotopoulos. They signed a memorandum of understanding with them in Vienna at the end of September to strengthen military cooperation. She also showed him in Burgenland how the Austrian border guards work.
Panagiotopoulos emphasized how good the cooperation between Greece and Austria already is and also mentioned the help in fighting the forest fires in the summers of 2021 and 2020. “True friends show themselves when the situation is difficult,” said the conservative politician. “This is the best proof of how friendly Austria is with us.” Austria also supports the Mediterranean country logistically and financially in the fight against illegal migration. At times, Cobra officers were also deployed at the Greek-Turkish border.
Tanner continues to travel to the Cypriot port city of Larnaca on Tuesday. She also wants to talk to her counterpart there, Petrides, about migration, the security situation in the Mediterranean region and the “strategic compass” for EU defense policy. The Mediterranean island, which has been effectively divided since a putsch supported by the Greek junta and a Turkish invasion in 1974, is one of the few non-aligned member states of the European Union.
The defense minister is also visiting the UN mission UNIFICYP in Cyprus, in which the army is involved with three soldiers. Austria has been involved in the Mediterranean island since the 1960s. The UN mission began in 1964 after armed clashes between the Greek and Turkish communities. Since then, more than 16,000 Austrians have taken part in the mission, but since 2001 the army has no longer been involved with its own contingent, but only with staff officers.