Greece and Israel sign first agreement strengthening natural disaster preparedness

Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Christos Stylianidis has completed his visit to Israel today where he made a series of agreements to strengthen the relations between the two countries.

Notably, Stylianidis met with Israel’s Deputy Minister of Defence, Alon Schuster signing the first Memorandum of Cooperation between Greece and Israel in the field of Civil Protection.

Israel’s head of the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), Yoram Laredo, was also in attendance and the two nations agreed to promote joint actions to strengthen their disaster preparedness.

They agreed to work together to design and develop: forecasting, monitoring and early warning systems.

In addition, the nations agreed to work together to improve their emergency response capabilities by providing mutual assistance and closer cooperation in the fields of research and technology.

📌 Νέα αρχή στη συνεργασία #Ελλάδα🇬🇷 🤝🏻 #Ισραήλ 🇮🇱 στον τομέα της Πολιτικής Προστασίας

💬@StylianidesEU: Η Ελλάδα προωθεί την περιφερειακή συνεργασία στην αντιμετώπιση εκτάκτων αναγκών, συνεργασία που ενισχύει τον ρόλο της🇬🇷 στην περιοχή #UCPM #rescEU

🔗https://t.co/itwSPvxgOc pic.twitter.com/SvJThbcqv5

— Civil Protection GR (@GSCP_GR) June 14, 2022

At the signing, Mr Stylianidis said: “Today has completed a very productive trip to Israel, a country of particular importance for our region and the southeastern Mediterranean.”

“We placed special emphasis on our cooperation in new technologies that meet the needs of the new doctrine for crisis management. The new doctrine of ‘Prevention, Preparedness / Readiness, Resilience’ that serves the management of emergencies, not only in Greece but also in Europe and internationally,” he said.

“This is a cooperation based on practical solidarity between the countries of the region, in a difficult part of the world, in a hotspot, so that each country can assist the other in a practical way in every emergency, in every natural disaster.”

The two nations have maintained a close relationship of solidarity and mutual assistance in cases of natural disasters, with Greece providing assistance to Israel to deal with forest fires in 2010, 2016 and 2019 and Greece receiving assistance in the 1999 earthquake and for forest fires in 2000, 2007 and 2021.

SOURCE: MINISTRY OF CLIMATE CRISIS AND CIVIL PROTECTION