On his first trip abroad since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today in Jerusalem. Mitsotakis is the first leader to arrive in Israel since the pandemic began. The Greek prime minister arrived in the country heading a large official delegation — including five ministers who are scheduled to hold separate meetings with their Israeli counterparts. The visit constitutes the fourth Government-to-Government (G2G) forum. After the tete-a-tete encounter, a larger meeting was convened, where the two leaders signed three memorandums of understanding: one each on cyber, agriculture and tourism.

Iris Ambor, director of the Foreign Ministry’s Southern Europe Department, told journalists before the meetings, “We will discuss the peace plan of President [Donald] Trump, and we will talk about energy and the EastMed [gas pipeline project], [and about] stability in the Middle East with an emphasis on Iran and Lebanon.’’ She said the two leaders will discuss the coronavirus crisis and ways to put bilateral tourism back on track.

Indeed, the issue of resuming flights and reopening Greece to Israeli tourists represented a top priority for Mitsotakis in his meeting with Netanyahu. It now seems that Israeli tourists could fly to Greece as of the beginning of August, without entering a 14-day quarantine upon their return. "Over a million Israelis go to Greece every year. This is an expression of Israelis' love for Greece," stated Netanyahu. “This also depends on what happens with the coronavirus pandemic, but if the numbers allow it, this [Aug. 1] is the target date for opening the skies,” he told reporters. For the past several weeks, Netanyahu has been discussing with counterparts in Greece, Cyprus, Austria and other countries less infected by the virus possible ways of relaunching regional tourism and the creation of bilateral travel corridors.

Another topic brought up by Mitsotakis was increasing Turkish activity in the Mediterranean, citing “recent incidents of illegal and provocative Turkish behavior at our sea, air and land border” and “the destabilizing effect that Turkey has made vis-a-vis its relationship with Libya.’’