Greece has a strategically important role in the region, at a difficult time in the midst of two wars, the UK Ambassador to Greece Matthew Lodge said in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) and reporter Sofia Papadopoulou on Monday, on the sidelines of the 8th Greek-British Symposium held in Thessaloniki, ANA reports.
“Greece has already, from the outset, been playing a positive role. And I think it is, of course, without question, of strategic importance,” he said, regarding Greece’s geopolitical role in such a difficult region.
Concerning Ukraine, in particular, he noted that there had been an “instantaneous” response by the government in Greece “to stand full square in support of Ukraine, in support of that country’s sovereignty, and in support of the Western and NATO efforts to help the Ukrainians in their defense – whilst, of course…being careful to do so in a way that avoids escalation.”
On bilateral relations between Greece and the United Kingdom, Lodge highlighted the “long and historic relationship” between the two countries.
“Just a couple of days ago I was in the Herodion at a concert to mark 200 years since the death of Lord Byron. It wasn’t just about Byron, it was about Philhellenes more broadly, but I think Byron occupies a unique position there. And even if we look at Greece in the modern era only, and of course, there are relationships that go back before that, the UK and Greece, through figures like Byron, but subsequently through a turbulent period of 20th-century relations and the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the First and Second World Wars, the UK and Greece have found themselves as friends, partners, allies, through all the major conflicts and periods of turbulence.
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