Federal Member Steve Georganas, who is the 2nd Vice President of the The World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association (PADEE-WHIA) - an organisation formed under the auspices of the Greek parliament to further Greek foreign policy goals through elected representatives in the Western Democracies, has put up a motion asking Australian government to back Greece's claims in disputed territorial waters against Turkiye.
Georganas, a Greek-Australian member of the Australian Federal Parliament, representing the people of Adelaide, during the month of September rose to talk about Aged Care Amendment Bill, Adelaide Bowling Club and EU-Australia FTA, other than asking a number of questions to the government.
He was also busy pushing for a motion, which could only be written better by Greek foreign ministry diplomats, endorsing Athens' claims against Türkiye about the dispute on territorial waters shared by both nations.
Georganas is on the board of PADEE-WHIA, which is defined on its website as:
"...interparliamentary organization of the Greek diaspora bringing together legislators of Greek origin from around the world. It was first established in 1996 and was formally established as an Association under Greek law in 2005. The purposes of PADEE-WHIA pursuant to Article 3 of its Statute are as follows:
To Build relations and communication among members of legislator who are of Hellenic origin in non-Greek speaking countries.
To strengthen relations of friendship and co-operation between Greece and the respective countries of the Association’s members and their Parliament.
To bring forth and promote the principles of Greek language and Hellenic culture in their respective countries.
Additionally, one of our core roles as an inter-Parliamentary group is to provide professional development opportunities and networking for our members and associates across the world."
Sharing the proud membership of the Greek parliament's global outreach body, is Tom Koutsantonis of the SA, who has also given coincidently a similarly worded motion to the South Australian parliament recently.
Amid rising competition for the resources in Western Mediterranean, current geopolitical crisis involving Russia, and other factors, tensions between Ankara and Athens have come to a tipping point according many analysts with close knowledge of the region.
With the US moving several military bases to Greece, the Greek army has increased its efforts to militarise islands facing Turkish shores. Some of the islands were used to host landing troops during the failed WWI invasion campaign of Türkiye by the Hellenic Army.
The increased military activity in the region, which is within kilometres from Turkish mainland, has recently caused several incidents including a Greek patrol boat opening fire on a Turkish civilian vessel and Greek air defence forces locking Russian S-300 missiles on Turkish fighter jets on routine patrol over the Mediterranean.
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