On Friday, Germany responded to the displeasure expressed by Greece’s Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, regarding the absence of an invitation for Greece to attend the second Berlin Conference on Libya on June 23rd.
“The basis for the second Berlin Conference on Libya is to include everyone who participated in the January 2020 conference and the subsequent follow-up process,” German Foreign Office Spokesperson, Maria Adebahr, said.
She added that Libya is “an issue that justifiably is of interest to many international organizations and countries and that is why the government has a great interest in co-operating as closely as possible, both within the European Union and the United Nations (UN).”
Moreover, the German Ambassador to Athens, Ernst Reiches, stated that the goal of the conference is to include countries that have been militarily engaged in Libya and stressed that the issue is not “German” but is an issue for the UN.
Dendias publicly expressed his displeasure on Thursday for not having received an invitation for Greece for this new round of meetings on Libya. The Minister also contacted Ján Kubiš, the UN Special Envoy on Libya, to notify him of his displeasure.
German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, and UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, invited the participating states and regional organisations of the Berlin Process to the Second Berlin Conference on Libya.
In a statement, the German Foreign Ministry said that this will be the first time that the Libyan transitional Government of National Unity (GNU) is represented at such an event. It added that the conference is an expression of the continued international support for the stabilisation of Libya.