Kotzias

Jane Holl Lute, the special envoy of the UN Secretary General, is set to meet with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias on Tuesday as part of her ongoing Cyprus tour.

Kotzias will welcome the UN diplomat in Athens at 4 p.m., where he is expected to lay down the main positions of his government regarding the Cyprus talks process.

What Greece has gained from June's name deal with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is that the Balkan country will no longer be widely referred to as "Macedonia" but will instead be called "North Macedonia," Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said on Friday in defense of the agreement.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is traveling to Athens on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations, but also the refugee crisis and European enlargement plans.

Le Drian will be meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras before sitting down for talks with his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, at the Foreign Ministry.

The issue of the eight Turkish servicemen that Ankara wants extradited continue to cast a shadow over Greek-Turkish relations as was evident during Tuesday's otherwise cordial meeting between foreign ministers Nikos Kotzias and Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The two men met during the inauguration of the renovated Greek Consulate building in Izmir.

Greece's Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, accompanied by his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, rolls the dice in a backgammon game between locals in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, Tuesday. Kotzias was in Izmir to inaugurate the renovated Greek Consulate building. [Cem Ozdel/Turkish Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters]

Turkey's foreign minister has bemoaned Greece's decision to grant asylum to a group of servicemen who fled to Greece a day after Turkey's 2016 failed coup.

Mevlut Cavusoglu said that if the tables were reversed, Turkey would never "shelter" coup-plotters acting against Greece.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated on Monday his pledge not to ratify in Parliament the deal reached between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) over the latter's name back in June, following a cable by Wikileaks which showed Skopje would have accepted the name "North Macedonia" in 2008.

The Turkish and Greek foreign ministers, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Nikos Kotzias, will meet in İzmir on Sept. 4 for the inauguration ceremony of the renovated building of the Greek Consulate General in another move as part of the ongoing reconciliation between the two neighboring countries. 

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gave his cabinet a light reshuffle on Tuesday, promoting certain close associates and bringing in some new faces while keeping key ministry posts untouched.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos all kept their jobs, as had been widely expected.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reshuffled his cabinet on Monday, keeping key ministers in place while bringing in some new faces. 

As expected, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, Tsipras's coalition partner, kept their posts.