New US secretary of state has dealt with Greece, Turkey

The United States' next secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has been a close associate of President-elect Joe Biden for many years and is regarded as a foreign policy pro. He knows our region well as he has dealt with it as part of previous administrations.

Blinken served as deputy secretary of state to John Kerry in the last two years of Barack Obama's administration and had also served two years as Obama's deputy national security adviser prior to that. During the former Democratic president's first four-year term, Blinken was national security adviser to Vice President Biden himself.

As a member of the national security council under President Bill Clinton, being responsible for strategic planning and later for European affairs, he was involved in managing developments that concerned Greece and its wider region.

He is among those American officials who have...