ATHENS — The United States and Greece issued a joint call for a peaceful resolution of the Eastern Mediterranean conflict as Ankara and Athens move toward diplomatic talks.
In a statement released during U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Greece on Monday, the two countries “reaffirmed their belief that maritime delimitation issues should be resolved peacefully.”
They added that Washington and Athens were ready to use “all appropriate means at their disposal, in order to safeguard stability and security in the wider region.”
Pompeo met his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias in the northern city of Thessaloniki, the first stop on his five-day tour of Southern Europe. On Tuesday, Pompeo will visit a U.S. naval base on the island of Crete before departing to visit Italy, the Vatican and Croatia.
His trip to Greece, the second within a year, comes days after Greece and Turkey committed to resuming diplomatic talks in an attempt to resolve the maritime boundary dispute that has seen regional tensions surge in recent months.
Washington has repeatedly expressed its intention to build close energy ties with Greece, which seeks to become an energy hub in the region.
Pompeo previously said that the U.S. was “deeply concerned” about Turkey’s energy exploration activities in waters claimed by Greece and Cyprus, and called on both sides to “reduce the tension” and the “military footprint” in the region.
Earlier this month, he visited Cyprus and called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. Cyprus and the U.S. also signed an agreement to create a security training center after the U.S. lifted its 33-year arms embargo on the divided island — much to the irritation of Turkey, which urged Washington to reconsider.
Military and energy cooperation were also on the agenda during Pompeo’s visit to Thessaloniki.
As tensions with Ankara rose, Athens announced a major arms spending spree, the country’s first in a decade. The U.S. is eager to get a share of the military spending pie and has expressed interest in the upgrade of four Greek frigates and the construction of four new ones. An upgrade to Greece’s F-16 jet fleet is already underway by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin, while a deal for buying four helicopters has been finalized.
On Monday, Pompeo and Greek Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis signed a bilateral science and technology agreement. The state secretary also hosted a roundtable with energy sector leaders to discuss energy diversification and infrastructure projects in Greece.
Washington has repeatedly expressed its intention to build close energy ties with Greece, which seeks to become an energy hub in the region and help Europe to diversify its resources away from Russia.
The U.S. presence in energy projects in northern Greece is already significant: Athens imports large quantities of U.S. liquefied natural gas and is developing a floating LNG storage and regasification unit off the port of Alexandroupolis, which will channel gas to Bulgaria and on to central Europe by 2023.
U.S. firms also have their eyes on the ports of Alexandroupolis and Kavala, which Greece is partially selling off.