Katerina Sakellaropoulou

Greece will defend its sovereignty and security, while adhering to a foreign policy that remains geared to peace and prosperity, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said Thursday in a message to diaspora Greeks ahead of the March 25 national holiday celebrating the launch of the 1821 war of independence against Ottoman rule.

The ethnic Greek minority in Albania and the members of the Albanian community in Greece act as a bridge of cooperation between the two countries, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou told Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Tuesday.

Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, commemorated on Sunday the 80th anniversary of the departure of the first train convoy for the Auschwitz camp.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou will attend the annual silent memorial march for Holocaust victims in the northern port city of Thessaloniki on Sunday. 

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the first train conveying Jewish inhabitants of Thessaloniki to Nazi execution camps, where an estimated 50,000 Thessaloniki Jews were slaughtered. 

On his first visit to Greece as the new Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides announced with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis the establishment of a High Cooperation Council between the two countries and the intention to form a common front within the EU to promote policies, especially with regard to energy and shipping.

"The Cyprus issue is a constant concern and a top national priority of Greek foreign policy," the President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou said on Monday, welcoming the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides to the Presidential Mansion on his first official visit to Athens after assuming his new duties.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will meet with new Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides at Maximos Mansion in Athens on Monday at 12 p.m.

It is the Mediterranean island's first official trip as president since his election on February 12.

The two leaders will hold a joint press conference after the meeting.

The government has asked the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) to advise it on ways to improve train safety after a crash on February 28 killed 57 people, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday.

A train with 350 people on board, most of them university students, collided with a cargo train near Larissa.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has vowed a full investigation into the massive rain collision at Tempe which killed 57 people and injured dozens on February 28.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called a Cabinet meeting for Thursday where the Tempe railway disaster is expected to be the only topic on the agenda, according to sources.