The Minister of Finances Yanis Varoufakis had the opportunity to meet with the US President Barack Obama for a short, 12-minute meeting on Thursday, at the celebration of the Greek Independence that took place at the White House in the American capital. Mr. Varoufakis – who broke the long-standing protocol and appeared before the US President without a tie – was accompanied by the District Governor of Attica Rena Dourou.

An emergency 45-minute meeting was also held in Washington with IMF chief Christine Lagarde, on the sidelines of the Fund’s Spring Summit. According to Mega Channel, the Greek economy was at the top of the agenda, with Mrs. Lagarde committing to help Greece. Sources from the Ministry of Finances claim the meeting – which had not initially been on Mr. Varoufakis’ schedule – went “very well”.

The meeting with Mrs. Lagarde came after a Financial Times report claimed that Greece had informally requested to delay payments towards the IMF – this was vehemently disputed by the Greek government. Mrs. Lagarde also told journalists that she does not recommend any such delays and underlined that delayed payments in the past have not had any productive results.

At 10am on Friday, the Greek Minister is scheduled to meet with the president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi, while at 16:30 he will meet with his American counterpart Jack Lew. At 18:00 he is scheduled to meet with the Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, before returning to Athens on Saturday, after the end of the IMF Summit.