Crisis-hit Greece’s prime minister in Russia to seek support and closer ties
MOSCOW, Russia — After failing to secure concrete financial aid from its EU-zone partners, George Papandreou, the new socialist prime minister of Greece, experiencing serious fiscal and budgetary difficulities that could possibly threaten its euro-zone membership, was recently on a short visit to Moscow to seek closer ties with Russia on key issues of bilateral importance to kick-starting his country’s near-comatose economy.
The visit is the second by representatives of European countries facing threats of an imminent sovereign bankruptcy and finding no adequate and/concrete financial help from its traditional closer allies in the EU zone. The first to pioneer this ‘economic salvation route’ to Moscow last year was Iceland, the first sovereign victim of the global financial meltdown on the continent, when Reykjavík dispatched its top financial envoys to Russia to seek a $4-5bln loan, when other emergency efforts, including those largely expected from global financial institutions such the WB, IMF and its traditional EU partners, fell through, leaving the country to face the drastically negative consequences of the economic crunch all on its own.
Commenting on Greece’s current dire economic situation, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the he was aware of the situation and its seriousness, and expressed hope that the bilateral talks with his Greek counterpart will help the Mediterranean nation to survive its present economic difficulties. “The negotiations with the Greek prime minister was detailed and multi-formatted, as we exchanged our visions on economic issues and international affairs and signed a large-scaled program on cooperation in the cultural and scientific spheres in 2010-11,” Putin said after the meeting in the Russian White House, the seat of the nation’s federal government.
Putin specifically noted the traditional good-faith and constructive relations between the two countries that had grown exponentially over the past few years steadily at 40-50% per annum were decapitated by the current crisis, as trade turnover between Russia and Greece nosedived by over 40% last year. “This is why the visit of the prime minister is of special importance as it enabled us to discuss the ways to jointly exit this difficult situation and turnaround these ugly trends. This is the very task set for the Russian-Greek Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation,” he added. “Other issues discussed included joining efforts in production, technology, oil and gas projects, notably the South Stream project, and boosting mutual investments into each other’s economies.”
From his side, the Greek prime minister also hailed the bilateral relations with Russia, before going on to briefly outline Athens’ vision and expectations from cooperation with Moscow and his government’s austerity measures to tackle the country’s daunting economic woes that now threaten the whole structural foundation of the common European currency. “Because of the current crisis, Greece is actually in a special situation today, this is why we need changes and are ready to execute them,” he said. “Suffice it to mention that we have adopted a Stabilization and Development Program, which envisages the reduction of our budget deficit to 4% next year, with the ultimate goal of bringing our economic parameters in line with the EU-zone requirements by 2012.”
By Christopher Kenneth
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