The United States intends to take a leading role on the issue of Greece’s debt and aims for a deal to reduce the debt before the Obama administration has ended, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during the meeting in Athens on Thursday, according to sources.
Citing U.S. President Barack Obama, Lew noted that the Greek economic programme was not an end in itself and that its goal was to bring about economic growth and prosperity for the Greek people, the same sources said.
There is recognition and respect for the efforts of the Greek government and the Greek people to put the country and the economy onto a path of growth, Lew said, and the U.S. have for at least a year pointed out the great economic and geopolitical importance of Greece as a member of the European Union.
Under the current conditions, with developments in Turkey and the uncertainty caused by Brexit, the need for stability and growth in Greece was made even clearer, Lew was reported as saying.
The discussion covered possible areas of cooperation between Greece and the United States, with emphasis on stamping out tax evasion and prosecuting cross-border tax cases. Athens raised the issue of cooperation on the UBS case and asked for the assistance of the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI in order to investigate cases linked to UBS and related to tax evasion cases in Greece.
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