Yesterday, Eddie Zemenidis, executive director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC), requested that the date of the “3 plus 1” cabinet (Greece, Cyprus, Israel and the USA) be set as soon as possible, speaking online at the 1st East Macedonia & Thrace Forum , which is organized by the Olympia Forum, in collaboration with the Municipality of Alexandroupoli, Energizing Greece and Hellas Journal.

During the section entitled “The US-Greek strategic partnership and its impact on Greece’s path towards stability” and called upon to evaluate the bilateral relations between Greece and the US, Mr. Zemenidis pointed out that although they are moving in the right direction, there is still a need to accelerate the pace at which processes such as the aforementioned cabinet move forward.

As he said, he understands that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed a lot of facts, as well as the holding of elections in Israel and Cyprus, nevertheless “3 plus 1” should have already been done. “There is something very certain, that Greece has shown time and time again, to two (US) administrations that it plays a tremendous role in the region and is a reliable partner, there is no doubt about that anymore. America must now show that it is a reliable ally. I want a date for “3 plus 1″” he characteristically said, stressing that this quadripartite meeting should take place as soon as possible, at ministerial level, so that Turkey also receives a message.

Mr. Zemenidis also recalled that during the first trip of the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the USA, in 2019, when Trump was still President, “Menendez hosted a dinner with (Jim) Rees and 12 Senators came and sat with the Prime Minister of Greece and at the end he printed the East Med bill and handed it to him” declaring with this gift – as he described it – that the most important partner country in the Eastern Mediterranean region is Greece. Finally, Mr. Zemenidis called on the Greeks to develop relations in the USA and to present the Greek positions also in American universities and not only in fora.

The Greek-US defense alliance and the role of the ODA

Nikolaos Katsimbras, HALC board member and lecturer at Columbia University, mentioned the defense cooperation between Greece and the USA, as well as the alliances of the defense industries of the two countries. On the one hand, he reminded, already last year it has been decided that there will be a presence, in the Eastern Mediterranean, of an American aircraft carrier, a development extremely critical for Greece, because, among other things, it further enhances the importance of Souda. And this is because the Americans have many times emphasized that Souda is the only port in the region, where an aircraft carrier can dock, fully serving its needs.

The second is that for the first time an American exercise, which left Souda, went to the FRI of Cyprus and the third is that the American defense industry Lockheed Martin (LM) has a collaboration with the Greek Defense Industry (EAB) – and not only for the defense equipment of Greece. In particular, ODA, together with companies from Israel, the Netherlands, Korea and Denmark, is a subcontractor and produces parts of the F-16 for LM orders for other “players” (among others the air duct, the fuel tank behind the captain’s seat and part of the fuselage). “This co-production is very important, among other things because all the countries that cooperate are democracies. “None of them is an authoritarian regime, nor does it have a tendency towards that,” he stressed.

Mr. Katsibras also made special mention of lobbying in the US, which cannot be done by volunteers as he said, but needs a team that knows how things work in the foreground and background and can organize a “chess game”. “The level at which HALC plays ball,” he said, “there is no one who can understand it easily” pointing out that the “shot” many players do not necessarily to score a goal, but sometimes also to tire the opponent.

His long relationship with Senator Bob Menendez was mentioned by the vice president of the Federation of Cypriot American Organizations, Tasos Zambas, the man who is credited with the philhellenic feelings of the American official, as reported by the moderator of the debate, Athanasios Ellis.

In 1995, he said, five or six Greek Cypriots stood by Menendez and fought hard to keep him in Parliament and to become a Senator. On the contrary, for a long time, he argued, many Greek-Americans with a large financial surface, in the majority of them Republicans, “were not helping things”, something that has changed in recent years due to Turkish provocation.

“It was a real struggle to get Menendez to where he is today in terms of Greece,” he said and added: “Turkey spends tens of millions on lobbyists. The diaspora, on the contrary, has dozens of volunteers and ordinary people, who are patriots and their party is Greece and Cyprus”.

The Bosphorus Strait bypass and the Egnatia Railway

ND MP Evripidis Stylianidis mentioned Turkey’s policy regarding the Bosphorus Straits and the fact that for the first time in history it worked to bypass them. “You realize that this Bosphorus by-pass is reinforced by the American military presence in Alexandroupolis. In fact, a bypass of the Bosphorus is operating for the first time, which must be strengthened with the completion of the Egnatia Railway, from Thessaloniki, Kavala to Alexandroupolis and from Alexandroupolis and Ormenio to the North of the Balkans and Europe,” he said.

He added that Greece is implementing another strategy, trying to activate alternative forms, sources and routes of energy, through projects such as the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the Interconnecting Pipeline Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), the FSRUE in Alexandroupolis and the gas storages in areas like Kavala. All this, he added, has created a new road, not only by land but also by sea to Europe, the Balkans and Central Europe, which now transports energy from 18 different markets other than Russia and supplies more than 14 million households in the wider region.

“We consciously choose to extend a hand of friendship and cooperation, but this presupposes respect for international law, the law of the sea and good neighborly relations and does not mean that if it is disputed we are not determined to defend our sovereign rights” he said and added that the area of Thrace has a combination of two characteristics that is rare and makes its role very important: the composition of its population and the existence of the Democritus University.