Hi! There are places that treats kisses on the lips as greetings like in Europe. Hope this helps!
No, not really.
Kisses on the cheeks, yes.
Not lips. Not unless it's your lover/spouse.
Lips are very intimate things even I'm "Europe".
It may be that the proclivity of westerners to be more open with PDA started the rumors though, and the "Continental Kiss" IE: double cheek kiss, became mutated to be, "Foreigners kiss anyone on the mouth as a greeting! How scandalous!"
Honecker and Bezhnev are STRAIGHT political leaders that have been photographed kissing each other in the lips on more than one occasion. Not all of Europe is a monolith. Europe is HUGE with different customs, and although some countries would find it horrifying, some countries think it’s acceptable for greeting. Do not throw that blanket statement out there, as you do not speak for an entire continent.
Hi! Sorry but that's a whole different thing. It's not custom in MOST european countries to kiss one another on the lips. I am also from Europe. The kiss you mentioned was a political statement kind of thing, not a countries custom. Ofcourse we cannot speak for a whole continet but to my knowledge it's not normal in most european countries, not even in France the country of love. It's different for family, in my country it's normal to kiss family on the lips.
I've been to SEA and before pandemic it's actually quite normal to kiss cheeks as greetings or kiss the right hand of elders/people that you respect. (I said kiss cheeks but in reality it's kissing air near the cheeks, I hope you know what I mean). Kissing on the lips tho.. if I remember correctly is only for spouses/lovers.
Ok but... where did this “it’s normal for them to kiss on the lips because they’re foreign” thing come from? I’ve seen it a lot but idk who does that or where it comes from so if anybody can tell me that would be awesome.