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EU leaders were in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for a European Council summit, with soaring energy prices and a rule-of-law dispute with Poland at the top of the agenda. Other topics on the agenda included discussions over migration, with the EU condemning the use of migration as a pressure tool, resurgent EU coronavirus hot spots, and vaccine donations. The summit also saw German Chancellor...

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Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is set to visit the United States between October 23 and November 3, where he will hold a number of important meetings, including a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House. In a recent piece for the Middle East Institute, expert Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir argued that this in-person meeting provides the Biden administration a unique opportunity not only...

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Hezbollah and its political allies have intensified Lebanon’s political crisis and paralyzed the new government by trying to push the cabinet to dismiss Tarek Bitar, the judge in charge of investigating the 2020 Beirut blast. Last week, on October 14, clashes erupted in Lebanon’s capital city over the probe into the explosion of Beirut’s port, with deadly shootings taking place at a...

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“Relations between Greece and the United States are at a peak, but they are not at the summit.” That was the message US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt conveyed to journalists after Greece and the US signed an updated MDCA last week and held their third Strategic Dialogue. Ambassador Pyatt joins The Greek Current to look at the recent US-Greece strategic dialogue and the signing of the...

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Last week Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed the new Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement between Greece and the United States and held the third round of talks as part of the strategic dialogue between both countries. Ambassador Alexandra Papadopoulou, Greece’s ambassador to the United States, joins The Greek Current to discuss how this...

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The United States and Greece signed an extension of the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement (MDCA) on Thursday, renewing their agreement for five years with an understanding that from then onward, it would remain in place indefinitely. The MDCA will boost defense cooperation between the two countries, including further investment in bases operated by the US military in Greece. Greek Foreign...

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Last week US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that President Biden was truly willing to support greater European military and defense capabilities, a key point in the joint statement with Macron aimed at smoothing over the AUKUS dispute. But Sullivan said it was crucial to deal in specifics. This statement, the AUKUS deal, and the recent defense agreement between France and Greece...

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Vassilis Nedos, Kathimerini’s diplomatic and defense editor, joins our podcast today to discuss his latest report that highlights Greece’s key foreign policy goals in the near future. We kick off by discussing Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias’ trip to Washington, DC, where he is expected to sign the updated Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement on Thursday and engage in the strategic dialogue...

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Is it time to check the power Turkey seeks to exert on the global stage? Expert Michael Rubin makes the case that it is in his latest piece for The National Interest - “The West Shouldn’t Deny the Big Picture on Turkey’s Erdogan”. Michael Rubin joins The Greek Current to discuss Turkish President Erdogan’s ambitions on the global stage and the methods he uses to achieve these goals, one of...

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Great power rivalry with China has become the central feature of American foreign policy, and is playing out across the globe, including in the Aegean and the Balkans. In his latest op-ed for Kathimeinri titled “Is America back?” Endy Zemenides argues that the US needs to step up its presence in the region in order to prove that “it is back”, especially as we look at the US-China rivalry. Endy...

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Reuters reported this week that Turkey made a request to the US to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes, as Turkey looks to modernize its Air Force after it was kicked out of the F-35 program. The deal, which would be worth billions, would need the approval of both the US State Department as well as Congress, which can block...

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On Thursday Greece’s lawmakers ratified a historic defense deal with France that includes a mutual assistance clause in case of an armed attack against either, the first such deal between two NATO members. The agreement was announced in Paris last week by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron, with Greece also announcing plans to buy three French frigates....

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On Wednesday EU leaders tried to reassure Western Balkan countries they could eventually join the EU if they met its standards, but the leaders failed to provide a credible signal that the bloc’s enlargement process will be relaunched in the near future. Instead, it looks like membership is slipping further into the future, to the frustration of candidate countries. The EU has spent many years...

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Last month the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers agreed to initiate the infringement process against Turkey in December unless it complies with a European Court of Human Rights ruling and releases political prisoner Osman Kavala. Kavala has been unjustly jailed for almost four years. The Council of Europe’s warning also urged Ankara to comply with another recent ECHR ruling to...

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In his latest piece for Foreign Policy Magazine titled “Erdogan Might Be Too Sick to Keep Leading Turkey”, expert Steven Cook looks at some rumors that are circulating about Turkish President Erdogan’s health, and breaks down how Turkish politics could be impacted in the near future should Erdogan not be in a position to run for re-election in the upcoming presidential elections in 2023. Steven...

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Petros Kasfikis, the Washington DC correspondent for the Athens News Agency and Greece’s Mega TV, joins The Greek current today with the latest analysis from the capital of the United States. We’ll look at the US reaction to to the defense agreement Greece and France signed on Tuesday, the ongoing negotiations for the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement between Greece and the US and the latest...

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On Wednesday Turkish President Erdogan traveled to Sochi, Russia, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for nearly three hours. While there was no official readout from either side detailing what was discussed, reports indicate that a number of key issues were on the table, including tensions in Syria, energy, and weapons deals. The meeting came after Erdogan’s visit to New York...

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The US House of Representatives passed a bill on September 23 with an amendment - introduced by Representative Dina Titus - that requires the secretary of state to submit a report assessing whether Turkey’s Grey Wolves — a far-right militant group — meet the criteria to be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. If the Senate also passes this legislation, then the US would join allies...

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Greece sealed an arms deal with France on Tuesday for the purchase of frigates worth about 3 billion euros. The agreement is part of a broader defense and security strategic partnership pact that includes a clause on mutual defense assistance and which French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described as “historic”. The two leaders announced the deal...

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On Sunday Germany held federal elections that saw the center-left Social Democrats win the largest share of the vote, narrowly beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc in a closely fought race. Both of Germany’s traditional leading parties finished with well under 30% of the vote, while the Greens and the pro-business liberals, the Free Democratic Party, backed by young...

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