Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras publicly acknowledged on Tuesday that the U.S. helped Greece in the crucial negotiations for the third bailout.
Tsipras spoke to representatives of Diaspora organizations at the Consulate of Greece in New York.
“During the difficult time of negotiations, I must admit that we had an open line of communication and cooperation with the U.S. government where we found a more sympathetic ear than we found in Brussels on the need of a fair solution to the economic crisis with a necessary debt write-down,” the Greek prime minister said.
Referring to the efforts the Greek government is making for a debt haircut, Tsipras said: “This battle is not over yet. It is a battle in which we must be united, inside Greece and abroad. This is why I reclaim my presence at the UN General Assembly so as to proclaim the great importance of the Greek debt settlement and seek alliances and international support.”
The Greek prime minister said to the Diaspora Greeks that they must be proud of the way Greek society handled the refugee influx. “You must be proud as Greeks because despite the fact Greece is in the middle of a crisis and we face a second crisis, which is the refugee inflow, we don’t lose our compassion,” he said.
“We show Europe’s good face, we have people who give to the refugees, like the baker on Kos. At the same time, some countries of the European Union raise walls and shoot rubber bullets,” Tsipras said.
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