A few days before his arrival in Athens, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made sure to send a message of support to Kimberly Guilfoyle. Following press reports targeting the U.S. ambassador to Greece, against the backdrop of energy deals, the head of the State Department stressed that “Ambassador Guilfoyle has proven extremely effective in advancing the President’s agenda in Greece and across Europe.” He also noted that she “has very successfully helped advance American energy interests in Greece and throughout Southeast Europe, through regional projects such as the Vertical Gas Corridor, which enjoys bipartisan support.”
Rubio also stressed that both he and President Trump greatly value “her decisive work and leadership role in the region.” For her part, Kimberly Guilfoyle, right after the State Department officially announced Rubio’s visit to Greece (as part of an October 5-8 tour of Reykjavik, Athens, and Lisbon), posted that, among other things, relations between the two countries are being elevated to new heights under Marco Rubio’s leadership. According to the State Department’s announcement, the goal of Rubio’s visit to Greece is to further deepen cooperation between the two countries on key priorities of the U.S. administration, such as defense cooperation, regional security, and energy security.
One-on-One With Gerapetritis
The U.S. Secretary of State is scheduled to arrive in the Greek capital on Tuesday evening, while today the two delegations are expected to finalize the details of the meeting. These include the final makeup of the American delegation, which in any case will be led by Rubio. According to current information, on Wednesday a one-on-one meeting between Giorgos Gerapetritis and Marco Rubio will take place first at the Foreign Ministry, followed immediately by expanded talks between the two sides. Joint statements by the two ministers may ultimately be decided on, while the final venue for the Strategic Dialogue has yet to be set, as it is not yet certain whether all sessions will be held in the same place.
As for the sessions, the 6th round of the Strategic Dialogue is expected to include the following topics: “Defense and Security,” “International and Regional Developments,” “People-to-People Diplomacy,” and the broader session “Energy, Shipping, Technology, Trade, Investment.” On the defense pillar, agreements may also be signed regarding Greece’s recent entry (April 2026) into the U.S. National Guard State Partnership Program (SPP), which launched a strategic partnership with the Florida National Guard.
A meeting between Marco Rubio and Kyriakos Mitsotakis is also considered certain and may take the form of a dinner, while informed sources point out that changes to the upcoming consultations are very likely, right up to the last minute. The 6th round of the Greece-U.S. Strategic Dialogue is taking place at a time of escalating Turkish violations and rhetorical provocations from Ankara, an issue that is certain to come up in the Athens-Washington talks. This is especially true as the U.S. is showing increased interest in projects in the region, such as energy projects for hydrocarbon exploration, the continuation of the Greece-Cyprus-Israel electricity interconnection (GSI), and the Vertical Corridor, with Greece playing a key role in transporting American LNG to Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans.
