The Greek Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government’s negotiations with its international creditors is in full swing even though their chief negotiators have delayed their arrival until Tuesday due to “technical reasons”. That’s not to say that Greece’s economic delegation isn’t already locked in talks with Troika representatives in a race against time until August 20 when Greece is required to make a loan repayment of 3.4 billion euros to the European Central Bank (ECB).

First contacts on Tuesday will be mainly introductory and it is unclear as to whether delegates will set foot into the General Accounts Office or the Ministry of Finance.

Sources told Proto Thema that the creditors wanted to and could have arrived in Greece last Wednesday. Only in this way could the text for a deal been chartered by August 8 so that there would be time enough to have it approved by the Eurogroup and the parliaments of member states so that Greece could get the first installment of funds benchmarked for the country by August 20.

The start of talks mean that the government has 10-15 days to do what it had not achieved in six months. Furthermore, the government delayed sending a special request for talks to the IMF on July 12, delaying talks for another crucial 30 hours.

Furthermore, the government’s decision to book luxury resort hotels for Troika representatives to stay by the beachside at Kavouri, Vouliagmeni or Lagonisi instead of hotels in the Athens center near the Greek ministries was met with derision in Brussels. “It’s a trap, they want to ridicule us by making it seem that we are in Greece for a vacation and that we live in luxury at a time when we are asking for sacrifices from the Greek people with cuts to their pensions and salaries,” said Troika officials.

Now members of the Troika have been booked into hotels that are a short walk away from Syntagma Square in the Athens center – right in the thick of things with danger of rallies and strike action.