Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou spent a week in Washington pressing for a broader strategic energy partnership with the United States, building on the momentum created at last month’s PTEC conference in Athens.
His schedule reflected a coordinated effort to engage every major pillar of American energy policy: the Trump administration, Congress and the private sector.
On Friday he is expected to address the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a prominent research institute influential on national security and energy debates. He will then meet with Alex Mitsis, Chevron’s International Relations Manager, followed by talks with senior executives at ConocoPhillips, which has been weighing potential investment opportunities in Greece.
Before leaving Washington on Saturday, he is set to give an interview to Fox News host Mike Emanuel, part of a broader push to elevate Greece’s energy diplomacy in the American media landscape.
The visit marked Papastavrou’s most extensive outreach in Washington since taking office. According to officials familiar with the discussions, the minister centered his message on three themes: Greece’s role as a stable energy hub for southeastern Europe, the importance of sustained American involvement in the region, and the need to mobilize both public and private resources for energy infrastructure.
Administration meetings underscored that approach. Papastavrou held talks with Interior Secretary Doug Bergham, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and members of the Energy Sovereignty Council. Participants described the meetings as unusually warm, shaped in part by a string of recent contacts between Athens and senior Trump administration officials. Bergham noted that he had spoken the night before with Kimberly Guilfoyle about matters concerning Greece, underscoring the degree of familiarity between the two sides.
Papastavrou also sought to secure bipartisan support in Congress. He met with leaders of the Hellenic Caucus in the House, lawmakers who for years have pushed cooperative initiatives between Athens and Washington and have taken vocal positions on issues involving Turkey and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In the Senate, he held separate meetings with members of key committees that steer American foreign and energy policy, including Senator Jerry Moran of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Ted Cruz, who chairs Commerce and Transportation, Senator Bill Haggerty of the Foreign Relations and Appropriations Committees, and Senator Ruben Gallego of the Energy Committee.
Legislators expressed particular interest, officials said, in Greece’s recent energy agreements and in the next round of meetings under the 3+1 format with Cyprus, Israel and the United States, which is expected to reconvene in Washington in April.
The minister’s outreach also extended to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, which the Trump administration views as a central tool in American economic diplomacy and competition with China. Papastavrou met with DFC chief executive Ben Black and the head of investments, Connor Coleman, to explore financing options for new energy infrastructure.
In the corporate arena, he held talks with Mike Seibel, the chief executive of Venture Global. The company recently signed the first long-term contract in southeastern Europe for the delivery of American LNG, an agreement with AKTOR and DEPA that administration officials have hailed as a strategic success.
