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Zoran Zaev announced his resignation as North Macedonia’s prime minister and leader of the ruling Social Democratic party after a landslide defeat in local elections late on Sunday. The move raises important questions about what lies ahead for North Macedonian politics, with the nationalist opposition, which is opposed to the Prespes agreement with Greece, calling for early elections. Tom...

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On Sunday President Biden held a meeting with Turkish President Erdogan on the margins of the G20 Summit. During their meeting, President Biden raised concerns about Turkey’s possession of the Russian S-400 missile system, emphasized the importance of respect for human rights and called for the countries to cooperate more and handle “disagreements effectively”. Going into the meeting, President...

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Greece’s often-strained relations in past years with Germany took center stage Friday during a visit to Athens by outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel. During their meeting, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou raised the thorny issue of Germany's role in Greece's financial crisis, noting that “there were times of difficulty and tension,” adding that Greeks “often felt alone.” Many Greeks...

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The US Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on two top Lebanese contractors and a lawmaker close to Hezbollah over alleged large-scale corruption that undermined the rule of law in Lebanon. This decision comes amid an unprecedented economic crisis in Lebanon. It also comes as Hezbollah attempts to expand its influence over Lebanon, seeking control over the powerful Finance and...

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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Paris-based global money laundering and terror financing watchdog, added Turkey to its “grey list” last week, placing it under increased monitoring. This is not the first time Turkey was placed on the “grey list”, and in 2019 the FATF warned that unless Ankara improves its “serious shortcomings,” Turkey risked being added to the grey list once again....

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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held two days of meetings in Saudi Arabia, where the focus was on bilateral relations and energy developments in the region. During his visit, Mitsotakis made the case that Greece can be an entry point into the European power market for energy produced in the Middle East. The visit came weeks after Greece and Egypt signed a deal to build an...

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This month the Piraeus Port Authority handed a further 16 percent of its shares to Cosco, cementing its control by the Chinese state-backed shipping group, which bought 51 percent of the Greek port in August 2016 during the financial crisis. The deal has intensified unease in the EU over China’s increasing involvement in European infrastructure and met a wall of opposition over environmental...

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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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