Nuland in Athens stopover
US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland was due in Athens on Tuesday on another stop during a series of visits that include Ankara, Nicosia, Berlin and Paris.
The State Department has officially described Nuland’s tour between April 2 and 9 as an attempt to strengthen bilateral relations and to coordinate with allies at a time of Russian aggression. Tellingly, Nuland is accompanied on her tour by officials not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, while in the case of Turkey the American delegation was numerically larger.
In Athens, Nuland will first be received by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and then will meet with Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.
For its part, Athens sees Nuland’s visit as an opportunity to gauge US views on energy in the Eastern Mediterranean as a whole, and not just the EastMed pipeline. Other issues that concern Athens are Turkey’s entry into the energy equation in the Eastern Mediterranean, the non-paper by the US regarding the feasibility of EastMed, but also the possibility of connecting Greece with Egypt.
