Greek Defense Minister Panos Beglitis and his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak, with whom he met in Jerusalem on Sunday, September 4 afternoon, starting his three-day official visit to Israel, signed a Cooperation Memorandum in the security sector, defencegreece.com reported.

“I come as my country’s Defense Minister to state our political will as a government, as well as the majority of the country’s political forces, for the two countries, the two governments, the two peoples, to work together so that we can further develop and deepen our bilateral relations in all sectors of mutual interest and concern,” Beglitis said.

This is the first visit by a Greek Defense minister to Israel and part of a cooperation memorandum agreed last year between Prime Minister George Papandreou and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while it is also taking place at a moment when Israel’s relations with Turkey are worsening, shaping new balance factors in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Greek Defense Minister clarified, however, that his visit exclusively concerns bilateral relations with the state of Israel and is not functioning competitively with other countries in the region.

He said he shares concerns on the security of the state of Israel and its legal right that emanates from International Law on self defense, condemning all those terrorist acts from organizations that operate from occupied Palestinian territory against citizens of the State of Israel.

Barak also spoke with positive words of the upgrading of the two countries’ military and defense cooperation, expressing his satisfaction over his Greek counterpart’s visit.

“We are seeing with satisfaction the deepening and widening of relations between us and the Greeks in all sectors, including the security sector, and we desire to see the deepening and widening of this cooperation between the governments, between the Defense Ministries and between our peoples,” Barak said.