Important strategic dialogue about what’s happening between Greece and US

The Willard InterContinental, a landmark hotel in the American capital, hosted the delegates of the 5th Forum for Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, which was organized by the English-language edition of Kathimerini, in collaboration with Delphi Economic Forum, and the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) last week.

As part of the conference, the Leader award was presented to John Sarbanes, the Greek-American congressman for Maryland, on February 12. In his moving speech to the packed Willard Room, Sarbanes spoke, among other things, about the values that govern his work, and converge with Hellenism. These values are ethics, philotimo (a sense of honor), public service, and work that concerns others. Referring to the three partners who co-organized the conference, he emphasized the value of cooperation.

“The forum, an important annual, strategic dialogue about what’s happening between Greece and the US, is just one collaborative example of what you can accomplish,” he said.

‘It’s not just the conversations that take place at the conference with US government and congressional officials, but also the in-depth exchanges of ideas on the sidelines of the conference and in the think tanks that hosted us’ 

Four think tanks

Earlier, four major think tanks in the city hosted closed sessions of the forum. The day began at the American Enterprise Institute in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC, with a discussion on Cyprus. Next stop was the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where participants discussed the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean following Hamas’ terrorist attack against Israel on October 7. This event was followed by a panel on Greece’s position in the region at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, while the role of the European Union and the United States in the stability of the Western Balkans was discussed at the Center for European Policy Analysis, located 10 minutes from the White House.

“The harmonious cooperation of the three bodies has now created a stable institution in Washington, which not only functions as a classic open conference day, but [also] with the closed-door meetings held at powerful American institutes and think tanks that draft American policy on the Eastern Mediterranean and Southeastern Europe,” Symeon Tsomokos, founder and president of Delphi Economic Forum, told Kathimerini.

“Practically the entire State Department Bureau of Southeast Europe was here, as well as the Office of Energy and Natural Resources – from Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien, Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Kimberly Harrington, who were speakers, to State Department and Congressional officials,” Endy Zemenides, HALC’s executive director, told Kathimerini.

In addition to politicians, there were also representatives of regional organizations, such as Osama Mobarez, secretary-general of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum, and executives of important companies, such as the chairman and CEO of power utility PPC, Georgios Stassis – who, in addition to his participation in the forum, met with Pyatt in Washington to discuss PPC’s transformation and expansion plans in the Balkans – and Vivian Bouzali, Mytilineos’ chief corporate affairs and communication officer.

“As a newspaper, we try to provide in the best possible way reliable information to foreign governments and officials dealing with Greece, and this is a great responsibility,” said Tom Ellis, the editor in chief at Kathimerini English Edition.

“The conference that we have been organizing for the last five years in the most important, for our national issues, capital, gives us the opportunity to do it with our presence. It’s not just the conversations that take place at the conference with US government and congressional officials,” he continues, “but also the in-depth exchanges of ideas, privately, on the sidelines of the conference and in the think tanks that hosted us.”