Greek Prime Minister Briefs Opposition Leaders on US Visit

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday briefed political party leaders on this week’s visit to the US and his meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.
Mitsotakis stressed the need for national unity in view of developments on the Greek-Turkish issue as well as the broader situation currently in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Athens has expressed its satisfaction with the US visit. “It has been confirmed that Greek-American relations are at their best possible level in many decades,” government spokesperson Stelios Petsas stated with satisfaction on Wednesday.
He underscored that the US President used very flattering words to describe the course of the Greek economy, sending a strong message to American investors to invest in Greece. Moreover, he said the US president now has a very clear picture of the geopolitical developments in the overall Mediterranean region.
“And, of course, of the fact that Greece, which is a stable and reliable ally of the US, can be a part of the solution and not of the problem. These are the three main results of the meeting during which the Prime Minister emphatically raised all the issues relating to our sovereign rights,” Petsas noted.
However, the main opposition SYRIZA party criticized Mitsotakis for bowing to the US President without receiving anything in return.
“The Greek Prime Minister handed over everything before the meeting with President Trump to finally receive only scorn,” main opposition SYRIZA sources charged on Wednesday, even describing the meeting as a “fiasco.”
In addition, they noted that Mitsotakis “clearly stated that he supports U.S. actions in relation to the execution of the Iranian general in Iraq, becoming the only European leader to make such a move.” In this way, the SYRIZA sources added, “he puts the country at risk for no reason.”
They also pointed out that the Prime Minister “has stated his readiness to buy F35s, when it is known that the country cannot afford to support such an aggressive weapon.”
SYRIZA made the additional charge that Mitsotakis “gave positive signals to U.S. demands to suspend the investments of Chinese companies for 5G networks,” while “he had no reason to commit to something of this sort, especially when these investments are beneficial for the Greek economy.”
Movement For Change party leader Fofi Gennimata, the Greek Parliament’s third largest party, described the official visit of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the White House as problematic.
Gennimata noted how her party, prior to Mitsotakis’ departure to the US, had warned that the PM chose to meet with President Trump without having first secured the full support of his country’s political parties into what she called a national policy portfolio or directive.
He therefore took on the responsibility of maneuvering the meeting Trump all to himself.
“He chose to meet the U.S. President insufficiently prepared, and he thus became a mere embarrassed spectator to Mr. Trump’s monologue against Iran,” Gennimata charged.
Following Friday’s meetings, opposition leader Alexis Tsipras issued a televised statement in which he expressed his party’s position on the issues discussed at the meeting.
Tsipras asked the PM to postpone the vote in the Parliament for the bill which aims to enhance the defense cooperation between the US and Greece even further ”until our sovereign rights are factually guaranteed.”