Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Markos Bolaris accepted the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, on the occasion of his visit to Athens.
There was an exchange of views on the migration issue, the persecution of Christian populations in many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, the destruction of their ancestral homes and of a significant part of the world’s cultural heritage.
The Deputy Minister informed Williams of the two-day conference on Religious and Ecclesiastical Diplomacy held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (28/2 – 1/3), providing for the first time to the Ministry a new source of information from practitioners handling in practice and every day the existing restrictions on religious freedom.
He also announced the establishment, for the first time at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the Center for Religious Freedom and Diplomacy, for the best management of related issues by the Greek State.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury has played a special role in Greece in communicating the problems of peaceful coexistence in areas that have traditionally been multi-religious and multicultural. He has developed proposals to encounter the radicalization of Muslims in Western Europe and he wished that Greece and Great Britain will continue to show political will to eliminate intolerance and to protect the populations under persecution.