PM: ‘Successful’ Pompeo visit will boost Greek position in EU summit
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday that the “successful” visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Greece would strengthen the country’s position ahead of the EU Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
“This is where Turkey’s behavior will be thoroughly examined and I hope that the message to Ankara will be perfectly clear: Unilateral actions cause side-effects, aggressive moves generate a response in kind,” Mitsotakis said.
“Provocations must stop so that talks can begin,” he said.
Mitsotakis meanwhile welcomed remarks by Pompeo who described Greece as a “pillar of stability” in the region as being “very important on a diplomatic level.”
“Let’s not forget that Pompeo also visited Cyprus a few days ago. I believe it has become very clear that the US has vital interests in the Eastern Meditarranean that it is not willing to give up,” he said.
Referring to Pompeo’s announcement that the US naval base at Souda Bay in Crete would become the home for US expeditionary sea base, the USS Hershel “Woody” Williams, the Greek premier said the decision “speaks volumes” about the future of Greece-US defense cooperation.
