“I want to start by congratulating him Donald Trump for his emphatic victory”, said the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the beginning of his speech about him Expatriate Hellenism at State Department.

Jokingly, at the beginning of his presentation, Mr. Mitsotakis, addressing the Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Gerapetritis, said that “if you wanted to be inventive you would have put a supertitle on the event “Made Greeks Great Abroad Again”.

“I am sure that Greek-American relations will be consistently strong and productive. Their character, after all, as I have said many times, is strategic and their sign is national and not factional. I therefore expect an even closer cooperation between the two governments and the two peoples”, said the Prime Minister, adding that the cooperation between Athens and Washington has always been impeccable during the first term of the new US president.

“I also want to remind you that the very honorable invitation to speak to Congress was a joint invitation, from both the Democratic and Republican parties. And I will repeat, finally, that the attitude of Greece, both as a member of NATO and as a partner of the European Union, is always an attitude of principles. And these principles are not mutually exclusive. They always recognize, however, that developments across the Atlantic also affect the whole of international relationships.”

At the same time, Mr. Mitsotakis did not fail to mention Europe as well, underlining that the Old Continent must dynamically seek its place in a world map of relationships and interests that is constantly changing. “To carve out new paths and make the European economy more competitive, strengthening social cohesion at the same time, to finally organize our energy independence as Europeans, but also to launch our common defense”.

“In other words,” he concluded, “we must build our strategic autonomy in new conditions. I believe that these issues will also be discussed and will become increasingly relevant at the Extraordinary Summit that will take place tomorrow and the day after tomorrow in Budapest. However, given the strong presence of the Greek element in the USA, I think it is a happy coincidence that the subject of our meeting today is the strategic plan for Hellenism Abroad.

“Greece is changing every day and Greeks everywhere must be fellow travelers on this road”

Referring to postal vote which was voted for the European elections only by the governing majority and was implemented with complete success, he said that “it is proof that the biggest reforms can and are being done and it is ripe for extension to the national elections of 2027 and that is why it needs a wider consensus as it needs 200 MPs . I hope that there will be a consensus from the parties so that we can all together send a message to the Greeks abroad.”

He described it as a privilege to have a diaspora in a country, adding that this link was never severed by the Greeks abroad. “It is a patriotic duty in the international liquidity environment. The attitude towards diaspora Hellenism is an important arm of the active foreign policy that weighed on the geopolitical footprint of the country so that everyone recognizes it as a factor of stability”.

No state can acquire a strong deterrent voice and defensive armor without a strong economy, added Mr. Mitsotakis.

“The Greece of 2024 is different from the Greece of 2019 and it is something that is primarily recognized by Greeks abroad who can see progress away from the distorting glasses of the toxic internal political reality” added the prime minister, stressing that “Greece is changing every day and Greeks everywhere must be fellow travelers on this road.”

“With a plan and work, you can be sure that we will achieve our goals and implement the plan for Hellenism Abroad” concluded Kyriakos Mitsotakis.