General Konstantinos Floros, the Chief of Defence Staff of the Greek Defence Force, said on Friday, that his Rwandan counterparts visit to Greece was opening new horizons in Greece military cooperation with Africa. He said this as he met the Chief of Defence Staff of Rwanda Defence Force, General Jean-Bosco Kazura during his visit was at Hellenic National Defence General Staff (HNDGS), according to media reports from Anthens. “The role of Armed Forces in Peace and Stability in the Mediterranean and Central Africa goes beyond geography, opening new horizons in our military cooperation,” said the Greek General via his twitter account. It is recalled that on May 25, Greek Foreign Minister Dendias participated as a keynote speaker in an online conference co-organized by the South African Embassy and the Group of African Ambassadors in Athens in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry according to reports by greekcitytimes.com. In his speech, the Foreign Minister welcomed the role of the African Union as a security architecture of the African continent and noted the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which has the potential for a common market of 1.2 billion people. “Greece, which never had a colonial past in the region, has a long and valued relationship with African countries,” he said, adding: “By building on these longstanding relations, we are working towards further deepening our mutually beneficial partnerships.” Dendias highlighted Greece’s intentions to upgrade cooperation in all sectors, both in bilateral and multilateral contexts. “Our growing engagement in Africa is being also demonstrated by the opening recently of our new Embassy in Dakar which will cover the biggest part of the Sahel region,” the foreign minister said. “Together with our other Embassies, the General Consulates, Consulates and Honorary Consulates in the Continent, Greece will continue working with our African partners to expand our relations on the ground,” he added. Rwanda-Greece relations In January 2018, Konstantinos Moatsos, the Greek Ambassador to Rwanda with residence in Nairobi presented his letters of credence to Paul Kagame. At the time, Moatsos said that Greece and Rwanda had signed air service agreements that had the potential to boost tourism, trade, investment and cultural exchanges between the two countries. “My job as Ambassador is to promote bilateral relations in every field, and I have realised that the region has a rich cultural heritage just like Greece. We are already partnering with Rwanda in the field of international relations, and we recently signed an air services agreement. We want to continue our partnership,” he said.
