The U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Thessaloniki last night in his visit to the country and before the start of the EU Summit scheduled for October 1.
Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected within a week and shortly before taking the plane to Brussels, in order to take part in the postponed special EU Summit scheduled for Thursday, to meet with the US Secretary of State, as well as his counterparts from Austria, the Netherlands, and Denmark, whom he will receive in Athens.
Government sources point out that Mr Pompeo’s visit “is a message to a wider audience and underscores the strategic relationship with the United States, which was sealed with the renewal of the expanded Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement”.
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The head of the American diplomacy, who will start his visit from Thessaloniki, where he will sign a bilateral agreement on science and technology, had recently visited Nicosia, while he is not going to Turkey, as traditionally was the case with his predecessors.
Thrilled to be back in Greece, a vital U.S. partner with whom we share a common strategic vision. The strength of our bilateral relationship is at an all-time high, and I’m looking forward to a productive visit. pic.twitter.com/8UZIAj6jtk
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) September 28, 2020
After Thessaloniki, the head of the State Department will travel to Crete to visit the Souda Naval Base and underline the strong US security partnership with Greece. Mr. Pompeo will be hosted at the Prime Minister’s house in Chania. There will be a dinner in his honour on Monday night and the next day they will visit Souda together. The talks of the delegations that will follow will also be attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense Nikos Dendias and Minister of Defence Nikos Panagiotopoulos, as well as the Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff (HNDS), Konstantinos Floros and the Director of the Diplomatic Office of the Prime Minister, Ambassador Eleni.
