Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 7, 2021

The Role of the Greek American Community in Advancing U.S.-Greek Relations

December 1, 2021

Grande Bretagne Hotel, Athens (podium, microphone)

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Let me thank General Floros and the Chiefs who are here with us this evening, you honor us by being here. I just want to underline what value we place on our partnership with all the Hellenic Armed Forces.

Im going to start tonight with a warm thank you to Nick Larigakis and AHI for inviting me to join this conversation this evening

But I want to say Im especially glad to be on this stage tonight with the Foreign Ministrys Political Director, Haris Lalacos. In the summer of 2016, when I was in Washington, DC getting ready for this assignment, Haris was Greeces Ambassador to the United States. In that capacity, he was one of the first and one of the key people that I turned to when formulating my agenda for this ambassadorship. He was exceptionally generous in sharing with me his advice for how to be effective in this role, and he and his wife Anna opened their home to Mary and me to help us get introduced to some of the key folks in the Washington diaspora community. And of course we were together a few weeks after my swearing in when President Obama paid his historic November 2016 visit to Athens.

So I was really delighted therefore when he was named MFA Political Director, and joined us last October for the fantastically successful Strategic Dialogue with Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Dendias in Washington. But for all Haris wisdom and diplomatic insight, I am confident that neither of us could have imagined in 2016 how far we would have advanced the U.S.-Greece relationship five years later. And so I very much look forward to hearing also what he has to say.

I also of course want to acknowledge Nick Larigakis and AHI. The last time I was speaking at this forum was almost exactly two years ago. Little did we know when we gathered in this same room at that point what the future would hold. And I really mean it from the heart when I say how wonderful it is to see everyone tonight in person and healthy.

I was in Washington, DC for the U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue as I said in October and while I didnt have the opportunity during that brief visit to catch up with AHI and other Greek diaspora groups that I usually see when Im in town, I want to let you know that the work you do was very much in the room throughout the Strategic Dialogue conversations. AHI and the other Greek diaspora groups active in Washington remain incredible force multipliers in the U.S.-Greece bilateral relationship. There is no mistaking the role that you have played and continue to play in strengthening the truly important strategic relationship between Greece and the United States.

Through its advocacy work in Washington DC, Nick and his team at AHI are a part of a 47-year tradition that unites the Greek and Cypriot communities in the U.S. and informs and influences elected state and federal leaders regarding public policy issues that I know you all are so passionate about: defending religious freedom, promoting stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, and strengthening relations between Greece the United States and Cyprus, making the United States stronger and more secure. And I am especially grateful for the work that AHI does to educate and inspire a younger generation with its annual student visits to Greece and Cyprus. I always meet with the AHI kids at my residence, and every single time I have come away encouraged by their intelligence and curiosity.

I hope, Nick, that you feel gratified to see your work reflected in some of the more recent positive outcomes in our bilateral relationship. It is truly remarkable to look back on how far the U.S.-Greece relationship has come over the past five years. Greece has become a driver of stability and a widely admired source of solutions in this region. The U.S-Greece defense and security relationship has grown dramatically over the past five years, and I am proud to say we are at a high-point in our military cooperation. This was reflected when Secretary of State Blinken and Foreign Minister Dendias signed amendments to our Mutual Defense and Cooperation Agreement in October agreeing to extend the duration and scope of the MDCA to advance our joint security goals. And we will spotlight this a little more on Friday when I will travel to Alexandroupouli along with Defense Minister Panagiotopoulos, General Floros, and others to observe the largest-ever military movement that we have staged in that strategically located city.

But thats not the only dimension of our cooperation. With the Prespes Agreement, Greece has rapidly normalized relations with North Macedonia, and it has shown great commitment to helping all of its Balkan neighbors to advance on the EU path, a goal that the United States emphatically shares. Greece is also cooperating with the Western Balkan countries on energy security, climate, and energy diversification in a way that advances our shared goals.

Greece has set an increasingly ambitious agenda in the wider neighborhood as well, forging new diplomatic and defense relationships with the UAE, Egypt, India, and Saudi Arabia, among many others. And it is bolstering ties with Israel and Cyprus through the 3+1 framework that the United States also strongly supports.

Greece has proven itself to be a valuable U.S. partner, a pillar of regional stability, and an important energy and transportation hub capable of building bridges between NATO Allies and key regional partners.

As an important complement to the U.S. Administrations effort, we are also seeing sustained interest by members of the U.S. Congress, having hosted just in the past few months here in Athens Senators Menendez, Murphy, and Ossoff, along with Congressman Bilirakis. And I have been truly delighted to see the strong bipartisan support for the Menendez-Rubio authored U.S.-Greek Defense and Interparliamentary Partnership Act, and the parallel Bilirakis-Deutch legislation in our House of Representatives.

President Biden of course cares deeply about the democratic values that were born right here in ancient Athens and he has made very clear that he is personally committed to taking U.S.-Greece relations to an even higher level.

In sum, weve reached a moment in which Greek and American interests in this region are more closely aligned than ever before, and the U.S.-Greece relationship is at an all-time high. Multiple governments and two political parties in both of our countries have contributed to this accomplishment, but I would also want to give credit to the many individuals and organizations that have prioritized our bilateral relationship, including, importantly, the Greek-American community of the United States.

So, its a special pleasure to be with you, and to have the opportunity to talk about what I think is a truly enduring driver of the U.S.-Greece relationship: our strong people-to-people ties, and the vital role that the diaspora plays in advancing our shared goals.

Our conversation tonight takes place as we are wrapping up a truly memorable year. Despite the many challenges presented by the pandemic, the Embassy team throughout the past year has managed to forge some terrific partnerships in order to deliver on our campaign to commemorate the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution.

We called our campaign, USA & Greece: Celebrating 200 Years of Friendship. Indeed our countries histories have been intertwined from the beginning, linked by democratic values that generations of our citizens have pledged to uphold and defend. Our deeply ingrained beliefs in equality, human liberty, self-government, and rule of law are the basis for the philia between our countries. And it is on the basis of this philia that we wanted to focus our campaign on friendship.

Nurturing and strengthening the bonds between our countries and peoples is central to the work that we do at the Embassy not just this year, but every year. In fact, these people-to-people ties are so important that we have enshrined them as one of the pillars of the U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue, alongside regional cooperation, defense and security, law enforcement and counterterrorism, trade and investment, disaster preparedness, and energy and climate.

And we share this goal of promoting people to people ties with AHI and other Greek diaspora organizations not just because its a nice thing to do. We do so because we know that this helps lay an indispensable foundation for our foreign policy objectives and the work we do to promote security and prosperity in both of our countries.

The Greek diaspora plays an important role, putting our democratic principles into practice forming a bridge between the peoples of our two countries. As I often say, you and the diaspora are one of the secret ingredients of the U.S.-Greece relationship.

So weve been celebrating Greeces bicentennial throughout the past year, working to strengthen our ties through programming that supports Greek civil society, cultural, and educational institutions. The Greek diaspora has built on a long tradition of AHEPA leadership on issues around the revolution and engaged extensively this year to get the word out about the role of American Philhellenes in Greeces fight for independence and to convey the United States 200 years of support and friendship with Greece.

Members of the diaspora have helped us not only celebrate our countries historic relationship, but through your commitment and advocacy, you demonstrate Americas respect for the ancient Athenian ideals that inspired our founders and continue to inspire American democracy today.

I was delighted also that The Hellenic Initiative (THI), another leading Greek diaspora organization, received one of the Embassys competitive bicentennial grants. Earlier this year, we launched a virtual entrepreneurship program with THI called Connect the Dots, through which successful Greek American business leaders are mentoring young Greek entrepreneurs.

Connect the Dots, as well as our sponsorship of the Athens Science Festival and an Escape Room at the Serafio that I highly recommend you visit, seek to strengthen the entrepreneurial and scientific ties between our two countries. They look towards Greeces digital future, addressing Greek young people who have natural ties to the United States and our high-tech industries.

Other bicentennial events sponsored by the Embassy have included fantastic exhibitions at the Museum of Philhellenism and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, as well as several upcoming performance featuring music from films about the American Revolution by the Greek National Opera on December 22 and 23.

And weve provided scholarship funding towards the establishment of a new American Studies Masters Program, which we launched a few weeks ago with the University of Piraeus, and Im really glad that several of those students are in the audience tonight.

Through all of these activities, we have endeavored to capture our respect for the past and our commitment to our shared future.

Looking beyond the bicentennial celebrations and into the next year, I hope that 2022 will see the defeat of COVID-19, and I know this will only happen through our continued close transatlantic cooperation.

Greeces democratic institutions have dealt valiantly with the challenges of the pandemic. And in many ways, the COVID crisis has strengthened and validated the partnership between our two countries, as evidenced by the many American companies that have stepped up to help the Greek government and private sector response.

Im very proud of U.S. companies like Pfizer, Abbott Corporation, and Johnson & Johnson for helping to strengthen our health care cooperation with Greece, just as our tech companies like Microsoft, Cisco, AWS, and Google have generously stepped up to offer remote work and learning solutions to Greek citizens, and the Niarchos Foundation has generously funded the expansion of ICU capacity in Greeces public hospitals.

In particular, Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine is a success story for transatlantic cooperation as well as a testament to the power of the Greek diaspora. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who led the team that produced this life-saving vaccine, is now quite deservedly one of the most famous Greek Americans in the whole world.

Another diaspora organization, AHEPA, also deserves recognition for its efforts to provide COVID-19 relief. At the very start of the pandemic in early 2020, AHEPAs Executive Director Basil Mossaidis called to ask me what they could do to help, never imaging how all-encompassing the pandemic would become. Moreover, theAHEPAUniversity General Hospital in Thessaloniki, founded in 1947 with the support ofAHEPAmembers in the United States, has become a lifeline for residents of Northern Greece and one of the countrys leading COVID treatment centers.

The U.S. Embassy has a history of working together with all of the various diaspora organizations, including AHI, to tell the story of the connections between the United States and Greece, including AHEPAs commissioning the statue of George C. Marshall, which sits outside my office in the Embassy courtyard, to symbolize the United States support for the Greek state and Greek people after WWII.

Diaspora groups also played a significant role in the 2018 Thessaloniki International Fair, when the United States was honored country. The extraordinary success of TIF 2018 has led to greater American investment throughout Greece, helping to drive economic growth and shape a positive narrative around American economic partnership in post-crisis Greece.

Individual Americans, many of them members of the Greek diaspora, also helped to provide a boost to Greek tourism this year. We had a record number of nine direct flights from the United States to Athens during the peak of the tourism season. And, these flights continued later into the fall than ever before, no doubt contributing to the all-time record number of passenger arrivals in Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos, Santorini and Karpathos.

Im delighted that so many of my fellow Americans were able to experience the joys of the Greek summer, which those of us in this room know so well. They also helped to contribute to Greeces greatly improved tourism revenues in the summer of 2021.

The impact of the Greek diaspora organizations and individual Greek Americans is evident in the work we do here in Athens every single day. We need your collective voices to help ensure our strong bilateral relations remain that way and that we find new avenues for cooperation in the future. Id also like to challenge those members of the Greek diaspora who are in the business world to take a closer look at investing in Greece. The sweeping reforms that the Greek government has undertaken have created the most business-friendly environment in the country in many decades. These reforms have helped to drive major new investments in Greece by giants like Cisco, Pfizer, Mondelez, Digital Realty, AWS, and Microsoft. Its time for folks to give Greece another look.

Greece and the United States are united by principles that connect and empower our peoples. I want to thank you all for your efforts over the years to support the mission of the U.S. Embassy to strengthen those vital bonds and bring us closer together. And I urge you to work even more vigorously in the months and years ahead were not done yet!

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By U.S. Embassy in Athens | 2 December, 2021 | Topics: Ambassador, Featured Event, Speeches, U.S. & Greece | Tags: #USGreece2021

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Ambassador Pyatt's Remarks at AHI Event: "The Role of the Greek American Community in Advancing U.S.-Greek Relations" - US Embassy in Greece...

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