Prime Minister Mitsotakis departing for visit to United States, meeting with Trump
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is due to arrive in the United States on Sunday evening, landing in Tarpon Springs, Florida to meet with members of the expatriate Greek community. The prime minister is to have a busy schedule of meetings in the United States until Wednesday, including a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Mitsotakis will celebrate Epiphany in Florida on Monday before departing for Washington for the meeting with Trump at the White House.
According to government sources, the prime minister's visit aims to highlight Greece's fundamental role for the stability of the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean, as the centre of both regions, and also as the most reliable ally of the United States.
The prime minister's visit to Washington will additionally have a significant economic aspect as he is scheduled to meet with investors on Wednesday and the head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva.
His visit to Tarpon Springs, where there is a sizeable Greek community, comes almost a full century after the previous visit to the area by a Greek prime minister, when Eleftherios Venizelos visited on January 30, 1922.
Outlining the aims of the prime minister's trip, government sources said that a number of actions have been taken in recent months to prepare for a deepening of Greek-U.S. relations, which is expected to be confirmed during Mitsotakis' meetings there. Recent economic developments, with Greece now appearing as a country that has left the crisis behind it, will also assist in this process, as will the prime minister's own personal ties within America's political, economic and academic circles.
Greece's increasing importance for the U.S. is reflected in a series of actions and statements on the U.S. side, the sources added, notwithstanding the sometimes 'contradictory' messages from the U.S. president.
They noted that Mitsotakis will try to exploit the fact that Turkey is acting in a destabilising fashion and constantly opening up new fronts, often in opposition to the interests of the West, and that this is often pointed out in the statements of important U.S. officials.
Among such U.S. actions, they said, was the signature of the Greek-U.S. mutual defence cooperation agreement in Athens in October, while they noted the very good relations developed by Mitsotakis with both U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. Vice President Michael Pence.
The sources further pointed to U.S. statements criticising the invalid Turkey-Libya agreement, including a statement by U.S. Ambassador in Greece Geoffrey Pyatt that supported Greek positions on the approach to issues of maritime zones.
The enhanced relations with Israel will also be significant, while Greece is now a part of the energy planning of the U.S. in the surrounding region, the sources added.
