Table of Contents
CHINA’S PRESIDENT WAS IN GREECE RECENTLY
2016
- In 2016, China’s shipping firm Cosco purchased a majority stake in Piraeus port. Situated in the Saronic Gulf, Greece’s largest harbor — and Europe’s seventh biggest — is at a strategic location between the Asian and European continents.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping and Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced earlier this week that Cosco would be investing about 600 million euros ($660 million) to develop Piraeus further.
THE PLANS
- “The objective is to transform it into the biggest transit hub between Europe and Asia and, potentially, the biggest port in Europe,” Kostas Fragogiannis, Greece’s deputy minister for foreign affairs
WHO HOLDS THE TITLE FOR THE TIME BEING?
- Rotterdam’s port, in the Netherlands, is Europe’s biggest harbour.
- It saw more than 8.6 billion containers (incoming and outgoing by sea) in 2018 — an increase from the previous year.
ADVANTAGE OF PIRAEUS
- The geographical advantages of Greek ports can be utilized for facilitating and increasing transfer flows from China and the Far East to the European Union, the Balkans and the Black Sea region, and vice versa
CHINA WILL NOW OPERATE A LARGE PORT INSIDE A NATO COUNTRY
CHINA ENTERING EUROPEAN POLITICS
XI JINPING’S SUPPORT TO GREECE
- “I totally agree with you,” Xi replied
- “Not only will you have my support, we should work together,” the Chinese president continued.“We, too, have our own [treasures] outside the country and are doing everything we can to get them home.”
CONCERNS FOR U.S
- U.S views this broadening of influence by China as an effort to overthrow the U.S sphere of influence in Europe
- China has started to play along the European politics at a time when there are divisions within NATO
ISSUES WITH EUROPEAN POWERS AND NATO
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