ATHENS, October 14 (Itar-Tass) —— Athens hope that the Russian president will visit Greece, Greek Vice-Premier, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said at the national parliament.
He did not say when President Dmitry Medvedev might come to Greece. “Certainly, we will welcome the President of the Russian Federation. We have a perfect relationship with Russia. We want to gain support of Russia, China, India and Brazil at the International Monetary Fund. Votes of 24 regions are necessary for approving the IMF assistance program to Greece,” he said.
The Greek Cabinet of Prime Minister George Papandreou, which took the office in 2009, many times invites the Russian president and premier to Athens. Papandreou paid an official visit to Moscow in February 2010 and held negotiations with Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Medvedev said back then that they hoped for new dynamics of the relations with Greece. In turn, the Greek premier pledged further deepening of the bilateral relations.
He promised after negotiations with Putin that Greece would continue the policy of close relations with Russia. “We have rather good political and economic integration, and our strategic partnership should receive a new content,” he said.
Medvedev and Papandreou discussed the bilateral relations at the OSCE Astana summit in December 2010.