The Greek Government intends to join the ”16+1 Group”, comprising number of Central and Eastern European States which have close ties with China.
The news comes from a report in the British Financial Times newspaper published on Thursday, ahead of the group’s meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which will begin later on in the day.
According to the British paper, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has already sent a letter stating his government’s intention to join the group.
Tsipras will attend the Dubrovnik group’s working meetings, in hopes that the country will be able to join the group officially at a later date.
The 16+1 Group’s official title is ”Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries – China-CEE.”
It is a Chinese initiative to promote business and investment relations between China and eleven Central and Eastern EU member states as well as five additional Balkan countries which are not in the EU.
The first meeting of the group was held in Warsaw, Poland in 2012.
The countries currently participating in the group are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
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