US Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was received by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, as the ranking member of the US Senate foreign relations committee continued his busy schedule of meetings in the east Mediterranean country.
A day earlier, Menendez was received by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and met with main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
On his part, Tsipras thanked the US Senator for his substantive role, as he said, in promoting Greek-American relations and for several legislative initiatives in support of Greece and Cyprus over previous years.
Menendez and Marco Rubio (R-Fla) this month tabled the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act of 2019, which would allow Washington to fully support the trilateral partnership of Israel, Greece, and Cyprus through energy and defense cooperation initiatives – including by lifting the weapons embargo against the Republic of Cyprus.
According to reports, Tsipras and Menendez also discussed, at length, the role of Turkey in the region, as well as the need for a respect by Ankara of the international law of the sea in the Aegean and Cyprus' EEZ.
