Shortly after 17:30′ on Saturday afternoon, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Crete to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The American Foreign Minister went directly to the Prime Minister’s house in Akrotiri Chania where preparations began in the morning with all the prescribed protocols and the security measures being particularly increased.

Earlier, the head of American diplomacy had met in Constantinople with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan and the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The subject of the talks between Mitsotakis and Blinken were the developments in the Middle East, the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the strategic cooperation between Greece and the US and the purchase of F-35 fighters from Greece, for which Athens expects immediate positive developments.

From 16:00′ in the afternoon, the first Greek politicians who will participate in the meeting began to arrive and were welcomed by Kyriakos Mitsotakis who is already in Chania.

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On the Greek side, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexandra Papadopoulou, the director of the diplomatic office of the Prime Minister, Ambassador Anna-Maria Boura and the special adviser on International Policy and Public Diplomacy of the Prime Minister Aristotelia Peloni participated in the meeting.

Present in Crete, in addition to the associates of the American minister, were the US ambassador to Greece, George Tsounis, who met with Mr. Gerapetritis the day before yesterday to prepare the meeting.