ATHENS, Oct 7, (NET) : Top US diplomat Marco Rubio was in Athens on Wednesday ahead of a “strategic dialogue” with the NATO member on regional and energy security, the State Department said.
The wars in Iran and Ukraine have laid bare the fragility of energy supply chains, and Greece is positioning itself to become a key hub in southeastern Europe for natural gas transport.
Rubio, who arrived from Iceland on Tuesday, is set to meet Greek leaders including Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis.
“Greece is a very important US ally,” Rubio told reporters ahead of the visit.
“It’s a place that we have not just a military presence but strong economic ties,” he said.
In February, lease agreements were signed in Athens granting a consortium led by US energy giant Chevron exclusive rights for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in maritime areas to the south of the Peloponnese and Crete.
In April, another deal was signed with an ExxonMobil-led consortium for exploratory drilling in the northwestern Ionian Sea set to begin in 2027.
A longtime buyer of US weaponry, Greece is also to acquire 20 F-35 warplanes, with pilot training to begin in 2027, according to the Greek prime minister.
The highlight of Rubio’s visit is set to be his address from the Pnyx, a hill near the Acropolis that is the parliamentary assembly of ancient Athenian democracy.
“Secretary Rubio will deliver an address from the birthplace of Western civilisation, where he will call upon Americans and Europeans alike to join together in a great renewal of the Western spirit, an inheritance stretching from Athens and Rome to Christendom to the founding of the American Republic,” Assistant Secretary for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson told reporters.
– Conflicts of interest –
“He will warn that too much of our civilisation has forgotten these essential qualities, and urge our allies across the West to join the United States in rejecting decline, defending our shared heritage and confronting a new era of great-power competition together,” Johnson said.
In February, Rubio urged Europe to join the United States to “deter the forces of civilisational erasure that today menace both America and Europe alike”.
In a speech to world leaders at the Munich Security Conference, he criticised mass migration to the West and what he labelled its de-industrialisation.
Greek police said more than 2,000 demonstrators gathered in central Athens on Tuesday to protest Rubio’s visit.
Syntagma Square, in the heart of the Greek capital, was closed to traffic, with a heavy police presence to beef up security, AFP photographers saw.
The visit has been overshadowed by media reports about possible conflicts of interest involving the US ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former fiancee of Donald Trump Jr. and ex-wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
In a letter addressed to Rubio, Congressman Gregory Meeks sought clarification of a Wall Street Journal report alleging that Guilfoyle had stated the United States could create “political change” in European countries.
Rubio later wraps up his European tour with a brief stop in Lisbon.
