The strategic importance of Thessaloniki and Northern Greece took center stage during a meeting on Thursday between the new US Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Greece’s Deputy Minister of the Interior for Macedonia and Thrace, Konstantinos Gkioulekas.

Held at the regional government headquarters in Thessaloniki, the discussion focused on Greece’s recently signed energy agreements, which position the country as an emerging energy hub in the southeastern Mediterranean. The United States, according to the meeting, has shown increasing interest in developments across Northern Greece.

Guilfoyle was accompanied by Jerry Ismail, the US Consul General in Thessaloniki.

Northern Greece’s Rising Geostrategic Value

Gkioulekas briefed the ambassador on the region’s advantages for foreign investment, particularly its proximity to neighboring Balkan states, its five universities, and its three major ports—factors that support its role as both a transport gateway and a center of education and culture.

The conversation underscored how recent energy deals strengthen Greece’s regional influence and create additional avenues for international cooperation, especially with the US.

Exchange of Gifts

The meeting concluded with an exchange of symbolic gifts. Gkioulekas presented the ambassador with special editions on Mount Athos, a replica of the 1912 Protocol of the Surrender of Thessaloniki, and reproductions of symbols associated with Greece’s 19th-century independence movement.

Guilfoyle, in turn, offered a crystal desk clock bearing the emblem of the US State Department.

Before the meeting, the ambassador toured the dual exhibition “Bringing History to Life,” co-organized by the Ministry of the Interior (Macedonia & Thrace), the Historical and Ethnological Museum of Greece, and the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle in Thessaloniki.