Greece seeks win-win relations with US without frustrating China: Premier

ATHENS

Greece is aiming to maintain win-win relations with the US without frustrating China, said the country’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, local media reported Friday.

Commenting on the ongoing controversy over the Chinese-operated Port of Piraeus, Mitsotakis told Bloomberg during the New Economy Forum in Singapore that Athens seeks a middle ground between the US and China, according to daily Kathimerini.

“I think we can find a way to absolutely work with the Americans and we want to do that. We’ve already signed deals to prove that we can construct win-win arrangements without, in the process, questioning investments made in the past and whose structure needs to be respected,” he said.

“Deals that were done by previous governments need to be respected,” Mitsotakis added.

On Wednesday, responding to remarks by US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, who publicly urged Athens to consider ways to diminish Chinese influence, including selling the Chinese-operated Port of Piraeus, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Athens said in a statement on the US social media company X’s platform that “this constitutes malicious defamation of the normal Sino-Greek commercial cooperation and a serious interference in Greece's internal affairs.”

In 2008, the Chinese state-owned company COSCO won a 35-year concession to operate Piers II and III of the port for €490 million.

In April 2016, COSCO acquired a 51% stake in the Piraeus Port Authority for €280.5 million. This stake rose to 67% in 2021 after an additional €86 million investment.

Last week, Guilfoyle warned that the US wants China out of the port in an interview with private broadcaster ANT1.

“It is unfortunate, but I think there’s ways around it, that something could be worked out, whether you pursue a path of enhancing output in other areas or perhaps that Piraeus could be for sale,” she said.