The Hellenic American Leadership Council Podcasts

EU leaders were in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for a European Council summit, with soaring energy prices and a rule-of-law dispute with Poland at the top of the agenda. Other topics on the agenda included discussions over migration, with the EU condemning the use of migration as a pressure tool, resurgent EU coronavirus hot spots, and vaccine d…

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is set to visit the United States between October 23 and November 3, where he will hold a number of important meetings, including a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House. In a recent piece for the Middle East Institute, expert Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir argued that this in-person meeting provides the Bid…

Hezbollah and its political allies have intensified Lebanon’s political crisis and paralyzed the new government by trying to push the cabinet to dismiss Tarek Bitar, the judge in charge of investigating the 2020 Beirut blast. Last week, on October 14, clashes erupted in Lebanon’s capital city over the probe into the explosion of Beirut’s port, with…

“Relations between Greece and the United States are at a peak, but they are not at the summit.” That was the message US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt conveyed to journalists after Greece and the US signed an updated MDCA last week and held their third Strategic Dialogue. Ambassador Pyatt joins The Greek Current to look at the recent US-Greece…

Last week Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed the new Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement between Greece and the United States and held the third round of talks as part of the strategic dialogue between both countries. Ambassador Alexandra Papadopoulou, Greece’s ambassador to the United States, joins T…

The United States and Greece signed an extension of the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement (MDCA) on Thursday, renewing their agreement for five years with an understanding that from then onward, it would remain in place indefinitely. The MDCA will boost defense cooperation between the two countries, including further investment in bases operated…

Last week US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that President Biden was truly willing to support greater European military and defense capabilities, a key point in the joint statement with Macron aimed at smoothing over the AUKUS dispute. But Sullivan said it was crucial to deal in specifics. This statement, the AUKUS deal, and the recen…

Vassilis Nedos, Kathimerini’s diplomatic and defense editor, joins our podcast today to discuss his latest report that highlights Greece’s key foreign policy goals in the near future. We kick off by discussing Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias’ trip to Washington, DC, where he is expected to sign the updated Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement on Thu…

Is it time to check the power Turkey seeks to exert on the global stage? Expert Michael Rubin makes the case that it is in his latest piece for The National Interest - “The West Shouldn’t Deny the Big Picture on Turkey’s Erdogan”. Michael Rubin joins The Greek Current to discuss Turkish President Erdogan’s ambitions on the global stage and the meth…

Great power rivalry with China has become the central feature of American foreign policy, and is playing out across the globe, including in the Aegean and the Balkans. In his latest op-ed for Kathimeinri titled “Is America back?” Endy Zemenides argues that the US needs to step up its presence in the region in order to prove that “it is back”, espec…

Reuters reported this week that Turkey made a request to the US to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes, as Turkey looks to modernize its Air Force after it was kicked out of the F-35 program. The deal, which would be worth billions, would need the approval of both the US State De…

On Thursday Greece’s lawmakers ratified a historic defense deal with France that includes a mutual assistance clause in case of an armed attack against either, the first such deal between two NATO members. The agreement was announced in Paris last week by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron, with Greece also anno…

On Wednesday EU leaders tried to reassure Western Balkan countries they could eventually join the EU if they met its standards, but the leaders failed to provide a credible signal that the bloc’s enlargement process will be relaunched in the near future. Instead, it looks like membership is slipping further into the future, to the frustration of ca…

Last month the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers agreed to initiate the infringement process against Turkey in December unless it complies with a European Court of Human Rights ruling and releases political prisoner Osman Kavala. Kavala has been unjustly jailed for almost four years. The Council of Europe’s warning also urged Ankara to com…

In his latest piece for Foreign Policy Magazine titled “Erdogan Might Be Too Sick to Keep Leading Turkey”, expert Steven Cook looks at some rumors that are circulating about Turkish President Erdogan’s health, and breaks down how Turkish politics could be impacted in the near future should Erdogan not be in a position to run for re-election in the …

Petros Kasfikis, the Washington DC correspondent for the Athens News Agency and Greece’s Mega TV, joins The Greek current today with the latest analysis from the capital of the United States. We’ll look at the US reaction to to the defense agreement Greece and France signed on Tuesday, the ongoing negotiations for the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agr…

On Wednesday Turkish President Erdogan traveled to Sochi, Russia, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for nearly three hours. While there was no official readout from either side detailing what was discussed, reports indicate that a number of key issues were on the table, including tensions in Syria, energy, and weapons deals. The me…

The US House of Representatives passed a bill on September 23 with an amendment - introduced by Representative Dina Titus - that requires the secretary of state to submit a report assessing whether Turkey’s Grey Wolves — a far-right militant group — meet the criteria to be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. If the Senate also passes th…

Greece sealed an arms deal with France on Tuesday for the purchase of frigates worth about 3 billion euros. The agreement is part of a broader defense and security strategic partnership pact that includes a clause on mutual defense assistance and which French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described as “histo…

On Sunday Germany held federal elections that saw the center-left Social Democrats win the largest share of the vote, narrowly beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc in a closely fought race. Both of Germany’s traditional leading parties finished with well under 30% of the vote, while the Greens and the pro-business liberals,…

After 16 years, Germany is saying farewell to Angela Merkel, its longtime Chancellor. As Germans head to the polls on Sunday, the rest of Europe will also be watching closely to see who emerges as the next leader of Germany. Throughout her tenure, Chancellor Merkel has steered Germany and the European Union through a number of crises, from the euro…

Earlier this week His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros, joined by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, attended an event marking the opening of the Turkish House - or the Turkevi Center - in New York. Both leaders chose to attend the event, which was officiated by Turkish President Erdogan, despite having prior knowledge that Turkish Cypriot lead…

Over the last decade we’ve seen the involvement of Turkey and the Gulf states grow significantly in the Horn of Africa, and the region became one more arena - like Libya and Tunisia - of competition between Turkey and Qatar on the one hand, and Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE on the other. While clashing interests and ideologies still shape dynami…

On Saturday Greece opened a new migrant camp on the eastern Aegean island of Samos. The facility is the first EU-designed, EU-funded migrant camp in the country, and is part of a broader European response to the tent cities that had emerged on Greece’s frontline islands since migrants and refugees began to arrive en-masse at the beginning of the mi…

The Biden Administration announced on Monday that it will lift coronavirus travel restrictions for fully vaccinated travelers, reopening its borders for the first time in more than a year and bringing an end to the series of travel bans first imposed by President Donald Trump 18 months ago. This decision by the White House also answers a growing EU…

Nine EU countries on the Mediterranean held a summit in Athens on Friday to discuss issues ranging from climate change to migration, security, and Afghanistan. The summit comes two days after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen - who was also in Athens on Friday - underlined the need for a common EU strategy in dealing with climate c…

A constitutional court in Cape Verde has issued a recent ruling that would pave the way for the extradition of Alex Saab, a Colombian-born businessman indicted in 2019 for facilitating sanctions evasion and bribery schemes by the Maduro regime in Venezuela. His extradition from Cape Verde, combined with ongoing US efforts to extradite a Turkish mon…

Energy prices in Europe have skyrocketed as economies emerge from the pandemic, boosting demand just as supplies are falling short. Even with mild weather in September, gas and electricity prices were breaking records day after day across the continent, with no relief in sight. A number of countries, including Greece, have already announced measure…

Is it time for the US to leave Incirlik airbase in Turkey? That’s the focus of a recent op-ed by Michael Rubin, who argues that rather than remaining a strategic asset, Incirlik is now a strategic liability. Michael Rubin joins our host Thanos Davelis on The Greek Current to discuss his op-ed - “The one foreign base Biden should abandon” - and expl…

Greece has created its first-ever ministerial post to exclusively handle the fallout from climate change in the wake of this summer’s devastating wildfires — and it has brought in a former EU crisis management expert for the role. Christos Stylianides, a Cypriot national who previously served as the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis m…

On Friday Lebanon’s President and Prime minister announced a new cabinet after thirteen months of political deadlock and a spiraling economic downturn. Lebanon has been without a fully empowered government since the catastrophic August 4, 2020 explosion that rocked the port of Beirut and forced the resignation of then Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s g…

This week when Greece’s Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias travelled to Tunisia, he wasn’t just traveling with a diplomatic team. He was also bringing 100,000 Covid-19 vaccines with him. This follows a delivery to Rwanda last week of 200,000 vaccines. These are the latest steps Greece is taking to combat the global pandemic that has seen it deliver vac…

In December, 2019, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the European Green Deal, the EU’s ambitious plan to lead the world on climate action and make Europe carbon neutral by 2050. The record heat waves and destructive wildfires that hit Greece and other countries in the Mediterranean have only highlighted the need for actio…

Hundreds of people gathered on Monday at Athens Cathedral to pay their final respects to Greek composer and politician Mikis Theodorakis, who was an integral part of the Greek political and musical scene for decades. Theodorakis passed away last week on Thursday at the age of 96. After his death was announced, Greece declared three days of national…

Turkish President Erdogan and the de-facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nayhan, spoke on the phone earlier this week in the latest sign of a possible thaw between the regional rivals. Turkey and the UAE have been at odds over Ankara’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and on opposing sides o…

Vassilis Nedos, Kathimerini’s diplomatic and defense editor, joins us on The Greek Current today to look at his latest op-ed in Kathimerini, where he highlights what Greece needs to be paying attention to when we look at the ripple effects in the region to the US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s takeover of the country. We als…

With the world and the US focused on Afghanistan, Turkey carried out airstrikes that hit genocide survivors in Iraq and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in mid August. One of the airstrikes hit a medical clinic in Sinjar, killing eight people, while another airstrike saw a Turkish drone kill Yazidi leader Hassan Saeed on the day he was…

US Senator Bob Menendez, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was in Greece and Cyprus last week and this week, where he held a number of key meetings with leading officials, including Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. His trip highlighted the increasing strategic value of Greece a…

Earlier this year Turkey’s President Erdogan had hoped to build leverage over the US, the EU, and NATO by reaching a deal with Washington, DC to take over and secure Kabul’s international airport after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. That deal is all but dead after the Taliban took over Kabul. Turkey is continuing its dialogue with all the side…

At the end of July, the leaders of Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania met in Skopje, where they agreed to bolster regional economic integration, vowing to abolish border controls between their countries by January 2023. They named their initiative “Open Balkans” or “Mini-Schengen” – after the European Union’s free travel zone. The announcement co…

This summer has highlighted a number of challenges the world is likely to face as a result of climate change - from the deadly floods in Germany and northern Europe, to heatwaves and wildfires that ravaged Greece, Turkey, and Mediterranean countries. Another area that is increasingly under pressure is the sea. This year, we witnessed a thick, slimy…

On Tuesday Greece’s Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias unveiled a series of new public health safety measures that foresee tough restrictions on individuals that have not been vaccinated against Covid-19. The measures come as Greece continues to see a steady increase in confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, as well as hospitalizations and intubati…

Since the beginning of August, Greece has battled devastating wildfires on the island of Evia, in the Peloponnese, and in Attica. The biggest disaster, however, took place in northern Evia, Greece's second-largest island. Over a million square meters of land has burned, destroying forests, homes and business, and killing thousands of animals in wha…

HALC's Stathis Theodoropoulos discusses the Delta variant and the way out of the pandemic with HALC Board Member Dr. George Chiampas, assistant professor and attending physician in the department of emergency medicine at Northwestern University and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He is also the chief medical officer for US Soccer and ser…

HALC's Stathis Theodoropoulos interviews Kathimerini's Vassilis Nedos about his latest column, which focuses on the strain of denialism behind climate change and the pandemic.By Hellenic Leaders

HALC's Stathis Theodoropoulos discusses Turkey's controversial drone program with HALC Executive Director Endy Zemenides.By Hellenic Leaders

As fires continue to rage across Greece, HALC's Stathis Theodoropoulos interviews Petros Kasfikis, the Washington DC corresponding for the Athens News Agency and Mega TV to analyze the latest developments.By Hellenic Leaders

50 years ago, the Turkish government closed the doors of Halki Seminary, an institution that served as the main school of theology for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, thus depriving the Ecumenical Patriarchate the ability to train Orthodox clergy in its historic home. In the decades since, the Hellenic community, religious freedom and human rights adv…

Armenia’s government said on Wednesday that three of its soldiers were killed after Azeri forces attacked Armenian positions near the border where clashes have become more frequent despite a ceasefire agreed to after Azerbaijan’s assault on Nagorno Karabakh last fall. Both sides later accepted a Russian ceasefire proposal to try to calm tensions. M…

Over the last ten years, Tunisia has been viewed as the “lone success story” of the Arab Spring. The country was plunged into crisis earlier this week, however, after its president suspended parliament and dismissed Tunisia’s prime minister in a move denounced as a coup by Tunisia’s main political parties. Steven Cook, an expert on Arab and Turkish…