It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you, your wife and your delegation to Greece.
Your visit gives us the opportunity to try to reciprocate the warm hospitality which we enjoyed in Beijing.
During our visit to Chinawe were able to admire your country’s great effort to prepare for the Olympic Games. Today we can congratulate you for their perfect organization.
Mr. President,
Your visit to Greece is an opportunity to further promote the excellent Greek Chinese relations which continue a very long cultural tradition between two ancient peoples. Among other things, our peoples share the consciousness of a long history which is an advantage and but also a challenge. They also share a sensitivity and respect for history and are aware that its distortion entails dangers.
I am certain Mr. President that our relations will continue to grow dynamically at every level. This year’s celebration of the Cultural Year of Greece inChinawas a milestone in our cultural cooperation and has brought our countries even closer to one another.
Your visit to this country Mr. President is taking place at the time of the worst global economic crisis since 1929. To a great extent this crisis is the result of a thoughtlessly excessive optimism, an irrational faith in the magic abilities of the markets. It is the result of structures in the global financial system which not only separated profit from liability but which sometimes rewarded the lack of transparency.
With the optimism of one who has lived through the horror of the 2nd World War and has seen the solidarity of the peoples ofEurope, I hope that we will learn from this crisis so that first we can avoid seeing the same disastrous consequences for mankind as those of that tragic war. Secondly, so that when it’s over we should not, with time, forget the reasons which brought it about and more importantly, that we should create more effective global tools to help us identify the symptoms and act preventively.
The excellent initiative of a global cooperation which started with the recent G-20 inWashingtonshould continue for precisely this reason. This type of cooperation was unfortunately absent in the 30’s.
On the way towards a new economic map of the world, your country,China, has a lot to contribute Mr. President. It is appropriate that the role ofChinaand of the developing countries in general becomes increasingly important as the world’s financial map changes.
Europehas placed man at the centre of its existence. I hope that it will continue to approach the crisis in this manner in order to overcome it as quickly as possible.
Mr. President,
In welcoming you, we do not only welcome someone who is very important for the world equilibrium but also a permanent member of the UN Security Council. The principles of this organization are the basis of the most serious institutional control on world peace.
I believe Mr. President that it now time for the principles of the UN Charter to prevail in the case ofCyprus, which is a member of the European Union.Nicosiashould stop being the last divided city of Europe.
With these thoughts Mr. President I should like to raise my glass to wish you and your wife personal health as well as happiness and prosperity to the people of China.
