Professor Nikos Kodzias, recent informal adviser for foreign policy of Alexis Tsipras, is the new head of Greek diplomacy. Kodzias is a professor of political theory of international and European affairs at the Piraeus University. His political path has always been through the corridors of the left, he was a member of the Communist Party, and recently joined SYRIZA.
He is mostly considered as a cosmopolitan and a man with open horizons, without any nationalist tendencies. He has extensive experience in foreign policy. Kodzias participated in the first National Foreign Policy Council, and until 2008, he was ambassador-adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for research, establishing programs and strategies. The professor was part of the teams for negotiating the Treaty of Amsterdam, Agenda 2000 and the Greek-Turkish negotiations. The new head of the Greek diplomacy is known as a former close associate and adviser to ex-foreign minister George Papandreou. The latter period, he is considered as informal adviser for foreign policy of Tsipras. Kodzias accompanied Tsipras on his journey to Moscow, the media even say that he personally was the initiator and sponsor of the need for such a meeting and urged Tsipras to visit Ukraine in the wake of the crisis.
According to the announcements, SYRIZA and Independent Greeks will initially freeze issues of foreign policy as the name dispute to avoid immediate problems in the coalition because of their differences. Independent Greeks today confirmed that they would not give up their red lines and campaign promises on national issues.
