The government spokesperson Olga Gerovasili revealed details on two trips planned by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the official briefing on Tuesday morning.
The Prime Minister will plan to London on Friday for the Syria Donors Conference, on the sidelines of which he will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, European Commission VP Frans Timmermans and Turkish PM Ahmed Davutoglu.
On Sunday the Prime Minister will travel to Tehran, in an effort to strengthen ties between Greece and Iran and discuss bilateral issues on energy, tourism, culture and trade. The PM will be accompanied on this trip by his ministers of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias, Energy Panagiotis Skourletis and Economy Giorgos Stathakis, among others.
In relation to the ongoing farmer protests, Mrs. Gerovasili stressed that the “government understands their problems” and underlined that “a discussion without ultimatums is necessary” in order to find a solution. She revealed that the government is prepared to improve its proposals and argued that the protest actions are “unrelated to the real problems of the farmers”, suggesting that their plight is being hijacked.
According to the spokesperson, the first round of negotiations with the creditors will conclude on Friday and resume against after a week, in order to conclude two weeks later. Mrs. Gerovasili commented that the intention is for the bailout review to be complete by the early March. The spokesperson added that the Greek government is strictly implementing the terms of the bailout agreement and was confident that the review would soon conclude, so that talks on debt relief can begin.
