Greek Prime Minister says Chinese Greece’s best buddy now

THESSALONIKI – With China the honored guest at this year’s Thessaloniki International Fair and looking to snap up more Greek assets, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the two countries are growing closer even as he wants still more business ties and investments.

He helped open China’s pavilion at Greece’s top annual trade fair in the northern port city that is Greece’s second-largest and a key to China’s plan to link the port of Piraeus and Thessaloniki on a sea and rail route to bring more Chinese exports into the European Union.

Tsipras cut the ribbon at the Chinese pavilion during a ceremony which was broadcast on Greek national broadcaster ERT, welcoming China’s role as honored country at TIF as “a landmark in the bilateral relations which have become stronger in recent years and have great prospects for the future.”

Tsipras, who visited China earlier this year in search of foreign investments he opposed while out of power, praised China’s New Silk Road plan to get deeper into the EU through Greece, where its company Cosco controls operations after buying up the state’s interest.

“We will quickly move forward, and via the collaboration with Chinese enterprises and Chinese investments here, to transform Greece into an international transport, trade and energy hub,” he said, the Chinese news agency Xinhua, which has an office in Athens, said.

Addressing the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Greece Zou Xiaoli noted that it was the first time after 19 years that China is the honored country in Greece’s most prestigious trade fair.

“This is a clear sign of the progress achieved in mutual understanding and trust between the two countries and peoples and of the joint efforts we make to address challenges to the benefit of all sides,” the ambassador said.

“It will also broaden the prospects for development and give a boost in economic progress throughout the Balkans and the southeastern Mediterranean,” he added.