Sep 29th, 2015, Tsipras discovers USA

·         Greece’ prime minister continues his trip to US, where he met with the Heads of Brazil and China. He also had a brief face-to-face discussion with US President Obama, who congratulated him for his recent re-election. There are press linkages mentioning that there will be a regular meeting between Obama and Tsipras.  

·         Tsipras ‘discovered’ the need of Foreign Direct Investments during the discussion with the former President of USA, B.Clinton.  

·         Effective 1^st of October, six Greek islands will lose their special VAT status. More specifically, Rhodes, Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, Naxos and Skiathos will see the waiving of 30% VAT discount. There will be two more waves of VAT waiving, the first will occur on 1^st June 2016, and the second on 1^st January 2017 when all Greek islands will have the same VAT status as with the rest of the country. 

·         Tourists’ arrivals via Eleftherios Venizelos airport increased by 25% in Athens during the Jan-Aug period. Road arrivals increased by 10%. 

·         Greece’s government plans to collect 1.1 bios euros from taxation on cars. Since 2009, approx. 772,000 cars have been immobilized due to taxation. 

·         Bulgaria’s current account surplus increased to 675.6 mios euros during the period Jan-Jul 2015, vs. 446 mios during the same period in 2014. Exports increase by 10.8% and imports by 6.2%. 

Risk assessment. Greece gradually returns to normality and reality. It seems that the ongoing debt crisis and negotiation as regards debt restructuring, have forced the local, so called ‘left establishment’ to make significant progress as regards its rapprochement with US.

This represents a historic, unprecedented development for Greece’s contemporary politics, considering the involvement of US foreign policy in two major local events of the last 70 year, such as a) the Greek Civil War (1944-9) and b) the 7 year military junta (1967-74). However, it represents a critical adjustment of local politics to the after Cold War era and reality.

It is highly likely to see the Greece – US strategic alliance to be further strengthened in the coming years. This is due to fluid geopolitical environment of Turkey and Middle East. In addition, Greece will need US support to attract foreign direct investments. Last but not least, Greece needs US technical and political support in its negotiation with creditors.

We may see Tsipras making significant steps towards Greece-US rapprochement.  We may see Tsipras inviting Obama to Athens soon. If that happens Greece will further enhance its regional geopolitical role and could emerge a business hub