Member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

The strategic dialogue between Greece and the US to take place in Washington on December 13 is seen as the culmination of two years of deepening ties.

Reliable sources have told Kathimerini that the US is banking on the developing relationship as a source of stability in the region.

The majority of Greeks are opposed to the agreement achieved last June between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to resolve a decades-old dispute on the latter's name, according to a poll on issues of foreign affairs, published by Public Issue on Monday.

Nikos Kotzias, who resigned as Greece's foreign minister last month, has criticized Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for failing to support him in his dispute with junior coalition partner Panos Kammenos over the Prespes accord.

"Tsipras behaved like Pontius Pilate," Kotzias told News 24/7 Wednesday, a reference to the Roman governor who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The stance of Independent Greeks (ANEL), the junior nationalist party in Greece's leftist-led coalition, on the name deal reached with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continues to resemble a kind of theater of the absurd.

Greece still has significant potential for attracting more high-income tourists who bring the biggest added value to the Greek economy, the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE) argues in its the latest report.

Greece has slipped further in the international competitiveness chart in terms of starting an enterprise, dropping five more places this year in the list of countries surveyed for the World Bank's annual Doing Business report.

This country's scores have headed south in all but one field examined, to end up 72nd in the world.

Albanian police shot and killed an ethnic Greek man on Sunday after he opened fire against officers taking down a Greek flag at a World War II cemetery in the village of Bularat, some 6 kilometers from Albania's border with Greece.

Albanian police reportedly shot and killed an ethnic Greek man on Sunday after he opened fire against officers taking down a Greek flag at a World War II cemetery in the village of Bularat, some 6 kilometers from Albania's border with Greece.

The strained relationship between Greece's two coalition partners appeared to reach a new low on Wednesday following Defense Minister Panos Kammenos's proposal of a potential alternative plan to the Prespes name deal between Athens and Skopje while on an official visit to Washington. 

US Defense Secretary James Mattis stressed the importance of the Prespa Agreement signed between Athens and Skopje to resolve the 27-year-old name dispute and praised Greece's efforts to stop Russian interference in the process during a meeting with Greek counterpart Panos Kammenos at the Pentagon on Tuesday.