Recent meetings with ministers and other government officials in Athens were attended by the members of the World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association, which were found these days in the Greek capital for the meeting of the Board of Directors. Acting president of the W.H.I.A., Rhode Island (USA) State Senator, Leonidas Raptakis, filled in for the ailing President Panayiotis Katsampanis.
As Mr. Raptakis said to the Panhellenic Post, the members of the W.H.I.A. attended the celebrations for St. Nicholas and the performance of the Navy Opera at the Municipal Theater of Pireaus. They also attended the annual conference of the Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce and attended speeches by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the President of New Democracy and head of the main opposition Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Also had successive meetings with US Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt.
They also met with the Minister of Shipping, Panayiotis Kouroublis, with whom they discussed the possible cooperation between the Greek-US Coastguards. They then visited the Ministry of National Defense and met with the Deputy Minister of National Defense Dimitris Vitsa, in the presence of the Chief of Staff of the Hellenic Navy, Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis.
At the Hellenic Parliament, they met with Deputy Foreign Minister Terens Quick, the Chairman of the Special Permanent Committee on Greeks Abroad, Alexandros Triantafyllidis, the Director General of the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad, Michalis Kokkinos, as well as with Anastasios Dimoschakis, New Democracy M.P for Evros.
Mr. Triantafyllidis invited them to attend the Thessaloniki International Exhibition, while Mr. Dimoschakis invited them to hold the next General Assembly for the World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association in the Prefecture of Evros in the summer.
They also met and had lunch with the Australian Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, who these days is in Athens and discussed strengthening the Greek language in his state.
Source: panhellenicpost.com