Trump: Republished Papastavros interview on energy diplomacy

Through his personal account on Truth Social, Mr. Trump republished the exclusive interview that the Minister of Environment and Energy, Stavros Papastavrou, gave to Breitbart News.

This post takes on additional significance, as Mr. Trump has just returned from Beijing, where he had a summit meeting with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, with whom they discussed, among other things, global energy policy issues.

The interview that Mr. Papastavrou gave to Breitbart, on the sidelines of the Delphi Forum, unfolds the strategy of energy realism, on which the cooperation between Greece and the US is based.

The Minister said that Greece is following the vision of “realism” in energy, promoting both hydrocarbons and renewable energy sources.

“Not just sun and wind, or just hydrocarbons. All together: wind, solar, hydrocarbons, hydroelectric, geothermal — everything. For Europe, this is a wake-up call. Because Europe is the largest customer of the US in LNG imports. At the same time, there have been several hesitant or ambivalent EU member states in developing their own natural gas fields. Europe depends on natural gas, but it has not been willing to accept that natural gas should be part of the energy mix for the coming years. President Trump has brought realism. And we see this in Greece’s approach as well.”

“The big picture is this: for many years — for decades — Greece has not exploited this hydrocarbon potential,” Mr. Papastavrou said.

“Now is the time for the government to move at an accelerated pace in this direction. The two largest American energy companies in the world, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have expressed interest and are actively participating. ExxonMobil, in a joint venture, will carry out the first exploration drilling in Greece in almost half a century, in the Ionian Sea and specifically in the so-called Block 2. It will be the first drilling at great depths, reaching 4,600 meters. All previous exploration in Greece, 40 years ago, had been done in shallow waters. Greece’s potential is in deep waters around the entire country. This could have a transformative impact for the country.”

Energy diplomacy
At the same time, Mr. Papastavrou said that energy diplomacy was the framework on which Trump’s trade agreements and key alliances such as the 3+1 scheme between Greece, Cyprus, Israel and the US were built: “One sees the importance that was given to energy organizationally and how it acquired a transformative dimension. It has a geopolitical dimension. It is absolutely linked to national security. This is the basis of the 3+1 initiative. Exactly what you describe — Greece, Cyprus and Israel together with the US, as we met at P-TEC — creates a form of cooperation for development and prosperity, which brings stability to the region and limits extreme behaviors and unilateral threats.”

He also stressed that US-Greece relations are at their highest level in recent decades, with energy constituting — along with defense cooperation — the main strategic pillar.

“Doug Burgum has visited Greece twice. Chris Wright has too,” he said.

“Energy has become the second strategic pillar, after defense, in US-Greece relations. In a way, it has become a bridge between Europe and the US, as part of the basic trade agreement between the EU and the US concerns the purchase of US energy by the European Union.”

And he concluded by saying that “the US and Greece are closer today than ever, and energy — along with defense cooperation — are the two main pillars of this relationship.”

In a recent interview with the same media outlet, the US Secretary of the Interior and Head of the Energy Sovereignty Council had emphasized: “We have an opportunity with US natural gas to move up from Greece and Croatia and down from Poland. Ukraine has a huge underground gas storage capacity. They can store an amount that is sufficient for an entire winter. We could fill these storages all summer long, when natural gas prices are low.”

Bergham mentioned dozens of shipments of American LNG to Greece, which Mr. Papastavrou also confirmed in his interview.

Highlighting the strategic relationship between Greece and the United States in energy, Mr. Papastavrou stressed: “Greece, on a standalone basis, is the 16th largest customer of the United States,” Papastavrou said. “85% of the LNG we import comes from the United States. The vertical corridor faced a regulatory problem, because νow Europe only allowed monthly contracts, which — if you imagine trying to supply Ukraine with monthly contracts — is essentially impossible. Now, after the contacts we had with other countries and with the European Union, from next October the idea is that contracts will be able to be monthly, quarterly and annual."