Galery

1

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will visit Athens on December 5 and hold talks with the President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias, the Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the leaders of the two main Greek parties - George Papandreou from PASOK and Antonis Samaras from New Democracy.

By coincidence or not Monday, December 5th is the day when the International Court of Justice in the Hague will rule on the appeal of the Republic of Macedonia in the dispute with Greece. The coincidence prompted the Greek media to speculate that Biden will make a statement from Athens, which will highlight a possible change in the position of Washington on behalf of the former Yugoslavian republic.

As already known, the U.S. recognized Macedonia under its constitutional name, and former President George Bush was one of the most ardent supporters of the Macedonian membership in NATO - a membership, which the government of Costas Karamanlis vetoed and which still today is not a reality. According to "To Vima" newspaper the administration of Barack Obama believed Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to be the biggest obstacle in resolving the dispute with Athens and it is possible that Joe Biden will officially say this during his visit to the Greek capital.

The U.S. Vice President will be accompanied by National Security Adviser Antony Blinken and before Athens they will visit Istanbul, where they will participate in a major economic conference. Greece expects their unequivocal support not only for the economic policy prepared by the team of Lucas Papademos, but also for the Greek position in the dispute with Turkey regarding the Aegean Sea.

Cold water, however, was poured on the Greek expectations, by the two largest Jewish organizations in the U.S. which officially and explicitly expressed their disappointment in the participation of the nationalist party LAOS in the new Greek coalition government.