US Senator Menendez outlines challenges, strategy for East Med partnership

"I have been a stalwart supporter of the deep American bonds with Greece, Cyprus, Israel and others in the region," US Senator Robert Menendez reiterated in the 15th Manuel Chrysoloras keynote speech on security cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean in Athens on Monday.

"These bonds are rooted in rich and vibrant diasporas and in a shared abiding faith in democracy, human rights and the rule of law," said Menendez, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at the European Public Law Organization (EPLO).

The American senator was in Athens as part of a regional tour promoting his Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act of 2019, bipartisan legislation that would allow the US to fully support the trilateral partnership of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel through energy and defense cooperation initiatives - including by lifting the embargo on...