President receives Israeli FM

President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Thursday received visiting Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who afterwards noted the excellent relations between Greece and Israel and the positive atmosphere surrounding those relations in Greece.

Papoulias, in turn, referred to the Greece-Israel rapprochement and the progress made in bilateral relations, while he also noted that the two countries could enjoy a mutually beneficial collaboration in the energy sector.

Noting that “everyone is talking about the energy sector”, Papoulias said that he personally, given the fact that he comes from a farming region (Epirus), was greatly interested in the agricultural sector, in which Israel “has had great progress in technology but also in new cultivation methods”.

Lieberman said that representatives of the Jewish community in Athens told him that they cannot remember relations between the two countries ever having reached such a high level in the past, while he also noted the good relations between the Greek government and the Jewish community.

On agricultural issues, Lieberman said he, too, had a particular interest in that field, adding that he was a big fan of olive oil from Kalamata.