Greek PM and Donald Trump come together amid growing US-Turkey tension

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, will meet Donald Trump on Tuesday in an official visit to Washington that has caught many by surprise.  The talks come amid growing US tensions with Greece’s Nato rival Turkey. “This is an important meeting for both countries,” Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of state for political affairs under George W Bush, told the Guardian. “Relations are better now than they were in decades past when strident anti-Americanism dominated Greek politics.”

Tsipras is an unlikely visitor to the Oval Office. The leftist leader, a once-militant Marxist, was openly hostile to Trump’s run for the US presidency, saying publicly: “I hope this bad thing doesn’t befall us.”

Meanwhile, Trump has said little about Greece, preferring instead to heap praise on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s increasingly autocratic president. But rapidly deteriorating relations with Ankara have prompted Washington to reappraise ties.

“Considering all the problems with Turkey, Greece is a relatively stable ally in south-eastern Europe,” said Burns.

for more reading https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/17/greek-pm-meets-donald-trump-amid-growing-us-tensions-with-turkey