2026 10th Capital Link Maritime Leaders Summit – Greece | Opening Keynote Remarks - Mr. Vasilis Kikilias

[speaking Greek] So, we in Greece, we cannot, uh, assume or, uh, politically or in terms of, uh, argument, talk about, uh, any other sector.

But in the maritime sector we can assume and, and be sure that we are the top nation in the planet.

Only 2% of EU's GDP still having 2,800 Greek-owned, uh, vessels, 19 to 20% of the global fleet, 61% of the European fleet engaged in more than 171,000 ports.

I think that constitutes a, a success story that we're proud of and goes back many, many, many years into our tradition, into our link, Mr.

Secretary, with the sea since, uh, back in the days of poverty in Greece, pioneers, captains, mechanics, people from the Greek islands and the mainland decided to overcome their destiny and go on a ship and travel the globe.

It wasn't like today, maybe four, four and half months, Mr.

Ambassador, uh, with, uh, excellent technological, uh, conditions, wifi, telephones, uh, great installations into the ships, getting the plane and going back from one port to the, to, to, to, to the other, to one's family.

It wasn't like that.

It was a tough journey.

But, but they undertook it, they believed in it, they made a true success story out of it and Greece opened up her wings to the north, the south and eastern and the west, and we're very, very proud of that.

So we're very happy, but also obliged to start discussing as a nation within the European family and within the IMO and globally as partners in this quest and not followers.

So we respect every opinion, we abide by every law, we believe in the IMO.

We do want a global framework.

We truly want to cooperate and work with everybody that we're present and with real time politics and policies.

And, and first of all, unfortunately, we live one more crisis nowadays after the pandemic, after a war in heart, in, in, in the heart of Europe, after an energy crisis, we got a conflict and a war in the Middle East with unimaginable, uh, consequences.

So preserving the security, the resilience and openness of international maritime transport is not just a maritime priority, it is a strategic imperament- imperative for the global economy and international stability.

And unfortunately, the difficult way has been proven that shipping industry and supposedly the tycoons that own the ships are out of society, which is not true.

Seafarers, captains, mechanics, ship owners, technocrats, traders and everybody are very well a part of the society

societyAnd what, what our decisions undertake during the diff- these difficult times has a direct, direct framework of, of, of reactions into society.

You talk about inflation.

It, it, it gets increased or decreased in terms of what we do with our ships globally, since 80 to 90% of global commerce is via the sea.

How we work together and engage into peace and not war also.

The difficulties we face also in the price of energy, and in the chain of energy, in the price of goods that end up on the table of the average Greek family, European family, Chinese family, American family, Japanese family.

So this big celebration, huge celebration that will take place, uh, this week, uh, in Greece, Athens, Greece, and I wanna thank very much Capital Link for being part of it.

Now it's more like a tradition, I think, Mr. Bournouzis.