Top Greek finance ministry officials, led by Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, will head to Washington D.C. on Friday and Saturday for a series of closely watched meetings with European and global leaders, contacts that the Greek side has repeatedly said will directly touch on the still ambiguous issue of Greek debt relief, at least short-term measures.
The Greek delegation will be in the US capital for an annual IMF and World Bank conference.
The issue of whatever debt relief, however, is linked with the leftist Tsipras government’s performance on the fiscal front, especially in meeting primary budget surplus targets through 2018.
On her part, IMF chief Christine Lagarde this week reiterated that the Fund will participate in the ongoing Greek program if it judges that Greece’s foreign external debt is “sustainable”, while again calling for the implementation of reforms.
Echoing this position from the other side of the Atlantic is US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who also pressed for a restructuring of the Greek debt.
The “roadblock” on the road to Greek debt relief, at least before 2018, is powerful German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, who has pointed out in repeated statements that the problem is not Greece’s debt load, per se, but economic competitiveness.
