Thank you very much.

First of all, many thanks to President CHRISTODOULIDES Nikos for hosting. Voila.

Again, it is important that I thank you, dear Nikos, for hosting us here today,

together with my friend António Costa, President Aoun, al-Sharaa. We had a very good meeting.

We welcome indeed the prolongation of the ceasefire between the United States and Iran and the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel.

Our shared goal is now to negotiate a lasting end to the war,

and this includes restoring full and permanent freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz without tolls.

It is equally clear that any peace agreement will have to address Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program.

The events of the last 7 weeks have shown.

The real danger that a nuclear Iran would pose to the world.

My message today to our partners were two.

First, I wanted to reaffirm our absolute solidarity with our partners in the region.

A key lesson of the past weeks is that security is indivisible.

You cannot have stability in the Middle East or the Gulf while Lebanon is in flames.

We call for the respect of Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity. A temporary pause is not enough.

We need a permanent path to peace, and on the way, we will continue to support the Lebanese people.

6 EU humanitarian air bridge flights have delivered over 250 tons of aid as part of the EUR €100 million in humanitarian assistance. This solidarity among partners is mutual.

I want to praise the leadership of Egypt and Jordan.

Both are leaving no stone unturned to find diplomatic solutions to conflicts that affect us all.

I want to thank the Gulf States for their support, for example, in bringing EU citizens home safely. Europe will remember this.

My second message is that, in times of crisis, bonds grow stronger.

Because we are not just partners in managing crises, we are partners for the future.

And this is why we held recently our first ever summits with Jordan and Egypt.

And are reinforcing our strategic and comprehensive partnerships. We have big investment packages underpinning them.

I look forward to our first EU Jordan Investment Conference later this year.

Indeed, when President Costa and I were in Damascus in January this year,

we announced a new political partnership with you, President al Sharah, with Syria.

Earlier this week, we proposed resuming the EU Syria cooperation agreement.

And in 2 weeks we will host the first high-level political dialogue between Syria and the European Union,

paving the way for a possible future association agreement.

We will keep supporting the revival of Syria's economy and the reconciliation of its society.

Turning to the Gulf countries,

last week the Secretary General of the GCC and I agreed that our partnership needs to become a broader geopolitical partnership.

The EU GCC summit later this year, I think, gives us the opportunity to do exactly this.

We are also ready to team up with the Gulf countries to diversify export infrastructure away from solely the bottleneck of the Hormuz Strait.

Now is the time to advance promising connectivity projects like IMEC,

the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor.

Finally The events of the past month have taught us a hard truth. Our security is not just related. It is intrinsically linked.

A threat to a merchant vessel in the Strait of Hormuz is a threat to a factory, for example, in Belgium.

So today I propose that we move beyond reactive crisis management.

First, we could consider expanding the scope of missions like Operation Spidas, evolving from mere protection. To a sophisticated joint maritime coordination.

Second, the threat of mass proliferation of drones and missiles is sadly, a shared reality.

We should set up a structural cooperation of scaling up defense production.

Together, let us build a region where peace is not merely the absence of war,

but the presence of a secure and prosperous future for all our citizens. Thank you very much.