Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on an official two-day visit to America where he will meet with President Biden at the White House today and address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, said that “one of the unintended consequences of the disastrous decisions by President Putin to invade Ukraine” was that Russia had inadvertently “succeeded” in uniting NATO. Fielding questions during an interview with MSNBC about the Finnish and Swedish applications to join NATO, Mr. Mitsotakis said, “I’m sure there is going to be a lot of saber-rattling and I’m sure Mr. Putin is not happy about this decision,” but added, “we are talking about a new security arrangement in Europe.”When questioned by Mika Brzezinski of “Morning Joe” as to why Turkey would want to “slow down a bid” by the two Scandinavian countries to join the Western military alliance, the prime minister replied: “You would probably have to ask the Turkish president,” but hastened to add, “Greece supports membership of Sweden and Finland into NATO and I do expect this issue to be resolved.”Also on Monday, during an open discussion at Georgetown University, Mr. Mitsotakis said, “This is not the time to use the NATO membership of two friendly countries as a bargaining chip. This is going to backfire if Turkey goes down that path.” He also said that he conveyed to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the message that “this is not a time for aggressive moves, it is not a time to project revisionist views of history.”Greece and Turkey share a short land border and a complicated history that is deeply intertwined. Both countries belong to the 30-member NATO alliance, but they are often sparring partners over issues ranging from unauthorized Turkish military flights over Greek islands in the Aegean Sea to disputes over demarcations of territorial waters in the Mediterranean and treatment of refugees.The Greek parliament last week ratified the extension of a bilateral military agreement with America for five years, with officials from the country’s center-right New Democracy party — headed by Mr. Mitsotakis — arguing that enhanced alliances within NATO will stabilize a region shaken by Russia’s war in Ukraine and ease chronic tensions in the eastern Mediterranean. The agreement grants the U.S. military continued access to three bases in mainland Greece together with its long-standing naval presence at Souda Bay on the island of Crete.While the durability of Greece’s membership in NATO is not in question, the use of bases in Greece in support of Ukraine is not uniformly popular across the political spectrum within the country itself — nor with Turkey. Greek newspaper To Pontiki reports that the northern port city of Alexandroupolis is an important geopolitical hub in the wider region, as it now “serves as an alternative to transporting troops to Romania, Bulgaria and Poland at a time when, due to war, the [Turkish] Straits are closed to NATO military ships.” That state of affairs irritates Ankara, and also led to protests last Thursday that saw several members of the Greek Communist Party unfurl banners at the ancient Acropolis against the military deal. They read, in Greek and English, “No to war. No to the bases of death.”Yet Greece’s reliability as a strategic partner of America is one of the messages that Mr. Mitsotakis will likely convey when he addresses Congress on Tuesday. “Greece is probably the most reliable partner the U.S. currently has in a rather turbulent part of the world,” he told MSNBC. Emphasizing Greece’s economic rebound after years of EU-imposed financial austerity, he affirmed that “Greece is back and the economy has recovered. American companies are investing in Greece.” In a nod to the importance of tourism to the Greek economy, he said, “We have the maximum number of non-stop flights between the U.S. and Greece this summer.”The Greek delegation to Washington has among its aims not only to reaffirm the strategic relationship with America at a time of war in Europe, but to emphasize the role Greece can play as an emerging energy hub in the eastern Mediterranean region.
