The Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Katrougalos, in his greetings at the two-day conference on Religious and Ecclesiastical Diplomacy, highlighted Greece’s will to be “an example country and model in our wider region, in this triangle of instability, whose peaks are Ukraine, Libya and Syria,” by using as a tool religious/ecclesiastical diplomacy too.
Katrougalos, according to ANA-MPA, focusing on the importance of the element of identity for the peoples, to the point of being a key feature of the policy-making of many states, referred to the historical significance of Orthodoxy for the definition of the national identity in Greece and to Church’s participation in the struggles of the nation.
In this context, the Greek State, in view of this important cultural and religious presence, the combination of the universality of Greek Orthodoxy and the presence of the Patriarchs as historic cultural beacons in our region and in the Near and Middle East, is trying to develop tools for interfaith dialogue as part of the mild diplomacy we want to emphasize, as the minister mentioned.
