Victorian Minister for Health, Mary-Anne Thomas along with Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Nicholas Reece and President of the Greek Community of Melbourne, Bill Papastergiadis recently met with Governor of Attica, Giorgios Patoulis at his offices in Athens.
Key matters discussed included the recent agreement between the medical faculties of the Universities of Melbourne, Athens and Patras which allows for the exchange of University students, academics, and researchers.
As President of the Athens Medical Association, Governor Patoulis played a key role in helping to engineer this MOU which also had the input of the Greek Community of Melbourne and Associate Professor Pirpiris.
Minister Thomas was keen to emphasise the importance of furthering the relationship between Australia and Greece noting the strong Hellenic presence in Victoria.
Minister Thomas also enquired as to the lessons learned by the Hellenic Department of Health arising from COVID-19 and was particularly interested in the responses and measures taken by the Greek Government.
The Victorian Minister thanked Mr Papastergiadis for facilitating this meeting and acknowledged the role played by his organisation in strengthening the ties of Australian and Greek University engagement.
