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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Athens in early February, reported the Greek media. Mrs. Clinton will participate in the annual conference on security issues, which will be held in Munich from the 4^th to the 6^th of February. On February 7^th, U.S. Secretary of State will be in Ankara. Her visit to Athens doesn’t still have a firm date – either on the 6^th or on the 8^th of January. It is considered to be a good start to the mandate of the new U.S. ambassador in Greece Daniel Smith, who is a former executive secretary of the State Department.
    This will be the first visit of the U.S. Secretary of State in Greece for the last 5 years. In November 1999 Madliyn Albright accompanied Bill and Hillary Clinton in the Greek capital in the wake of the massive anti-American demonstrations. In 2004 once again massive anti-American demonstrations again made the Secretary of State at that time Colin Powell to refuse to attend the opening of the 28 Summer Olympic Games. A visit in Athens, however, paid Condoleezza Rice in April 2006 without causing any particular public reactions. Hillary Clinton had to participate in the summit of the OSCE in June 2009 in Corfu, but days before this she broke her arm and canceled her participation.
    U.S. Secretary of State has the ambition to encourage both George Papandreou and Recep Taib Erdogan to overcome their longstanding controversy and put the Greek-Turkish relations on a civilized basis. In her agenda both in Ankara and in Athens is also the Cyprus issue, as on 26^th January in Geneva, UN Secretary General gathers for a second trilateral meeting the leaders of the Cypriot Greeks and Cypriot Turks. Mrs. Clinton conversations with her Greek hosts will also include the dispute over Macedonia's name as right after her visit on February 9^th in New York the international mediator Matthew Nimetz summoned negotiators from Skopje and Athens. Terrorism control and the economic crisis are also topics of mutual interest which will also be discussed during the meetings of Hillary Clinton in Athens.