ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2023) Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Thursday after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi that they agreed to establish a high-level cooperation council, the first meeting of which could take place in early 2024.
"We have decided to proceed with the establishment of a high-level cooperation council with Egypt, in which many members of the council of ministers would participate. We hope that the first such council could be held in our homeland in the first months of 2024," Mitsotakis told the ERT broadcaster after talks in Egypt.
The prime minister added that significant attention has been paid to energy issues, including the project of laying an electric cable between Greece and Egypt. Cooperation in labor-related issues has also been discussed.
"There is a significant labor shortage in our country right now, whether we are talking about the Primary sector or construction. We have put forward a plan to quickly implement the initial idea of cooperation in this area. We want to encourage legal migration, but we will fight illegal migration very hard. Egypt can offer assistance to the country to meet our human resources needs," Mitsotakis said.
The talks were held in the Egyptian town of El Alamein on Thursday. Mitsotakis said he traveled to Egypt to reaffirm the strategic depth of relations between Greece and Egypt and thank Cairo for providing helicopters to battle wildfires.
In November 2022, Athens and Cairo struck a deal to hire 5,000 seasonal agricultural workers.
