Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday for a one-day visit, his fourth since 2020, at what Greek officials see as the most critical geopolitical juncture yet, Ta Nea reported.
The trip to Riyadh was arranged in secrecy and was not officially announced for security reasons.
Preparations had been under way since the summer, and the visit was initially set to coincide with an EU–Gulf summit that was later postponed.
Athens nonetheless considered it important to reaffirm its strategic ties with Riyadh through a one-on-one meeting between Mitsotakis and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a year after the two countries’ first High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council met in AlUla.
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With regional powers vying for influence in the Gulf, Greece has stressed its operational presence there since 2021, when it deployed a Patriot missile battery to bolster Saudi air defences. The government sees no reason to withdraw the system, which will remain in the kingdom.
Mitsotakis is then expected to leave for New York on Oct. 28 to chair a U.N. Security Council meeting on maritime security the following day, as part of Greece’s presidency of the council.