US President Barack Obama to visit Greece on November 14-15 – Greek debt relief will be on the agenda

Outgoing US President Barack Obama is expected to visit Athens on November 14 and 15 and meet with Alexis Tsipras, according to reports on Tuesday, in what will be his first visit to Greece, just two months before he steps down from the White House.

High on his agenda will be the issue of Greek debt relief, an issue that has divided once again the troika into two camps, those who are in favor (US administration, IMF, France) and those who are against it (mainly Germany and its satellite-countries).

As Realnews reporter Christina Korai reports, on that same trip Obama will also visit Germany and will meet with Angela Merkel.

Obama’s visit is being expected with great interest in Athens, as the US president has been unusually outspoken in recent months regarding austerity policies being pursued in the European Union.

“I believe the austerity measures have contributed to slowing growth in Europe,” the US president was quoted by Reuters as telling Italy’s La Repubblica daily on Tuesday.

“In some countries, we’ve seen years of stagnation, which has fed into the economic frustrations and anxieties we see across the continent,” he said.

It looks like prime minister Tsipras is playing out his last hand, as many in Greece believe that if he does not achieve debt relief by the end of 2016, he will call for early elections, blaming the Europeans for not honoring the agreement they reached in summer 2015 on a road map for debt relief.