An ambassador with no fear of storms

A small party was being prepared in the garden of the Residence of the Greek Ambassador in Washington on Saturday, June 24, somewhat breaking the monotony of dull Embassy Row. Despite the insistent forecasts of inclement weather, Alexandra Papadopoulou had dared to set up the large round tables in the garden.

“Whatever happens, we’ll find a solution,” she reassured me when I wondered what we would do once the storm came. I remembered I had heard the same answer many times over the last few years. When storms of another kind approached. Amendments were excised, bills stumbled, strategies overturned. Her composure was always almost contagious and an alternative plan ready in her mind.

In the end the extreme phenomena did not occur that night. However, there were unexpected developments that turned, in hindsight, the annual invitation to friends and colleagues into a farewell celebration. A few hours later she was hurrying on a plane to return, not to the “beloved Filiatra” (her family’s ancestral town in the southwestern Peloponnese), where the neighbors would poke their heads out of their windows to say good morning, but straight to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens to take up the duties of deputy minister.

Papadopoulou leaves behind great successes, maybe some outstanding issues that she did not have time to settle, but above all valuable alliances and open doors in the halls of government and Congress. And that’s a real feat, considering the scramble for access in this very tough city.

I asked her recently what were the most powerful moments, the defining events of her years in Washington. She picked the summer of 2020, when the tension in the Eastern Mediterranean (between Greece and Turkey) was on red alert status. And she focused on one of the most critical days. “I know that it was imperative that President Trump hear our side clearly, as well. Erdogan could call him on the phone whenever he wanted. I was racking my brain. I finally found the right Greek American, who has nothing to do with politics, but was able to arrange a phone call for me, and quickly, with National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. He was on the presidential plane. Next to Trump. We talked for a long time. When we ended, I was sure that things would not go to extremes.”

It was with emotion that she told me about the historic address of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the Congress and how making sure it happened was much more difficult and complex than one can imagine. She had conceived the idea long before she came to the US in 2020.

“When I shared my idea with my colleagues, they replied, ‘With all due respect, these things don’t happen.’ ‘If we don’t try we will never learn,’ I responded.”

When the anti-pandemic measures began to weaken, she put her plan into action. A plan that had to be approved by then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who, as Papadopoulou was told from every side, “runs the shop.” Powerful Greek Americans with close ties to her put in a word and the date was set. But, there was a small problem. A meeting at the White House between Biden and Mitsotakis for the same period had to be arranged. Almost impossible, as the inviolable rule of Washington states that “you don’t ask for a meeting with the president on a specific date, you ask for a meeting and hope.”

The irresolution of certain presidential aides who, once more, did not want “to anger Turkey with such an upgraded visit” and the sudden announcement by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that he would visit Washington on the exact same days further complicated things. Papadopoulou knew it was time for some plain talk. She called the White House adviser who was creating the difficulties. “Our visit will take place anyway, if you want to bring Cavusoglu as well, fine; it will be the White House which will be asked to convince that the US is not initiating a mediation.” Cavusoglu’s visit never happened. The Mitsotakis visit made history.

With diplomats of exceptional quality and knowledge by her side, Papadopoulou managed to turn the embassy in Washington into an important locus of influence that faced every critical situation with composure and strategic planning. I remember last year in June when Erdogan – in an unprecedented move of escalation – launched a verbal attack with a series of posts in Greek. I and my most senior colleague in the American capital immediately asked to see her. “If they are panicking at the State Department,” from where we had just left, “we can imagine what is happening on the Greek side,” we told ourselves. “Well, OK,” the ambassador told us as soon as we entered her office, “let Erdogan speak, what matters is that he confines himself to words. If he starts moving his ships, then I’ll understand your distress.”

She had the same kind of reaction every time rumor had the Turks spending huge sums to lobby Washington. With a slight dose of irony and a huge dose of confidence on her own intervention capabilities, the ambassador said, “It’s their job, everyone does theirs as best they can.”

Because of her three previous postings in North America, her Greek-American husband, who she lost prematurely, and the opportunity she had to do her master’s degree in the US on a Fulbright Foundation scholarship, Papadopoulou always saw her ambassadorial posting as something of a return to her roots. And herself as “one of us,” as members of the diaspora say. From the festivals and dances in the most remote villages of “politically indifferent” states to the salons of Greek-American tycoons, she methodically invested in harnessing the immense power of the diaspora. “Everyone has something to offer, everyone is necessary, each in his own way, by his own means,” she used to say, an attitude that was nothing like the usual elitist diplomatic mentality.

Important legacy

The iron lady with the velvet glove, as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez calls her, the woman of enviable integrity, as Rep. John Sarbanes calls her, the one diplomat who is not afraid of reporters, I might add, took over her duties in the most difficult circumstances. Ten days after her arrival, the planet was plunged into the chaos of the pandemic. America was shutting down. Her term in the most important diplomatic post on the planet was starting on the most uncertain footing. Three and a half years later, Alexandra Papadopoulou’s departure will make Embassy Row even more boring; she also leaves an important legacy that will define the image of Greece in the US in the years to come.