Mitsotakis on the GSI: “It is no longer only a Greek and Cypriot project, it is a European one”

The Great Sea Interconnector (GSI), the cable that will link the electricity grids of Greece, Cyprus and, at a later stage, Israel, “is no longer only a Greek and Cypriot project” but a “European project”, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday, October 9, in an interview with SKAI, as reported by the Cyprus Mail.

“It was European from the start, since I remind you that it received more than €600 million in European subsidies, and now, with the participation of France and of the French investor Meridiam as majority shareholder, you can see that the project has political and economic interest for our friend France too,” he said.

The prime minister also referred to the statements of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio the day before. “Rubio said clearly that the US supports these interconnection projects. They support them, I believe, for the right reasons, specifically because the project could eventually reach Israel,” he said. Rubio had said on Thursday, October 8, that the US would make “diplomatic efforts” to advance the project, that such issues are best resolved privately and quietly, and that the US is in constant contact with Turkey, a relationship in which it has invested.

On Greek-Turkish relations, Mitsotakis said that “the waters in the Aegean have a light breeze, let’s say, a small ripple”, which is “not unusual”. “Just as the weather changes and we have periods of calm and sometimes stormy winds, the same happens in meetings with the Turkish president,” he added. He stressed that Greece has a strategic alliance with the US, is a member of the EU and NATO, and has built a strong network of relations with the Arab world, India and Israel.