Greece is willing to strike mutually beneficial deals with the United States without undoing previous agreements with China, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said, following criticism from Washington over Beijing’s investments in the country.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the New Economy Forum in Singapore, Mitsotakis said Athens aims to find a middle ground between Washington and Beijing.
“I think we can find a way to absolutely work with the Americans and we want to do that,” Mitsotakis said. “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.”
China’s state-owned Cosco Shipping bought a 67% stake in Piraeus Port Authority in 2016, amid Greece’s financial crisis. Cosco was the only bidder, and the sale was made under pressure from international creditors, who had made the privatization a condition for additional bailout funding.
“Deals that were done by previous governments need to be respected,” Mitsotakis added.
Last week, US Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle described China’s state ownership of the Port of Piraeus as “unfortunate” and suggested it could be reconsidered. “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.
The Chinese embassy responded in a written statement, calling Guilfoyle’s comments “malicious slander” against Sino-Greek trade relations and “a serious interference in Greek internal affairs.”