Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and IMF Chief Christine Lagarde met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos on Thursday. The meeting lasted for one and a half hours and was viewed as an effort to strengthen ties between Greece and the International Monetary Fund. There was no discussion concerning an IMF exit from Greece, however the IMF did express an interest in continuing to “support Greece”. An IMF statement was issued following the meeting:

“The managing director reiterated that the IMF stands ready to continue to support Greece in achieving robust economic growth and sustainable public finances through a credible and comprehensive medium-term economic program.

Such a program would require strong economic policies, not least pension reforms as well as significant debt relief from Greece’s European partners to ensure that debt is on a sustainable downward trajectory.”

The Greek side also said that the talks were “sincere”. During the meeting, Tsipras had a chance to underline that the time is a critical parameter for the successful conclusions of the Greek program and the first review, according to the Greek briefing paper on the talks. On her part, Lagarde said that it was not the IMF’s intent to delay the evaluation of Greece’s economy. Furthermore, the same paper said that an agreement was made between the two leaders to ensure that there is “direct ommunciation” between the Greek government and the IMF to ensure that there is a clear view of each other’s positions.

Following the meeting, Tsipras took to Twitter:

During the meeting Lagarde was briefed concerning investigations of lists concerning bank accounts abroad.