Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' visit to Washington for the NATO Summit and the special significance of this meeting, due to the fact that it coincides with the 75th anniversary since the foundation of the Alliance, were the first items in a press briefing by government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis on Monday.
He noted that this would also be the first summit with 32 allied states participating, after Finland and Sweden also recently joined NATO.
Marinakis said the items on the agenda in Washington would include an increase in the Alliance's defensive capabilities and an increase in the contributions of European member-states and Canada, a confirmation of support for Ukraine and NATO's cooperation with partners such as the EU or the IndoPacific 4 (Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea).
Marinakis noted that Greece was among the "core of allied countries" that already exceed the requirement to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence spending, while explaining that Mitsotakis has submitted a joint proposal with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for a European air defence "shield" using European financing to strengthen the European pillar of NATO.
Marinakis announced that the prime minister has been invited to take part in a public debate with former U.S. Ambassador to Greece Daniel Speckhard at the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday at 12:15 (U.S. time). Mitsotakis is also scheduled to have meetings with members of Congress and then to attend events for NATO's 75th anniversary on Tuesday afternoon.
At 11:30 local time on Wednesday, shortly before the start of the NATO summit meeting, the prime minister is take part in a public debate with Nadia Schadlow, a former deputy national security advisor of the United States, at the NATO Public Forum.
On Wednesday night, he is scheduled to attend a dinner given in honour of visiting heads of state and government by the U.S. president and First Lady.
After the conclusion of the NATO Summit in Washington, the prime minister is to visit New York for a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at 11:15 on Friday.
Other issues addressed by Marinakis during the briefing included the digitisation of state services, where he highlighted the great progress made by Greece in the last four years, and the development of fibre-optic networks.
"Even though we are not yet near the European average, our country has jumped 10.56 percentage points," he pointed out, while also noting that 5G coverage was now at 98%, increasing by 14.5% points and exceeding the EU average of 89.3%.
Marinakis also referred to the 1,820 services now offered by the gov.gr portal, up from 503 when it began in 2020, noting that it had been used to  issue 290 million documents, while the gov.gr Wallet now included nine documents and had been downloaded by 3.8 million Greek citizens.
The spokesperson concluded with a reference to the summer fires, noting that the fire department had fought more than 140 fires in just the last three days, many of which required great efforts by strong firefighting forces to be put out.
"Friday was an especially difficult day due to the very frequent lightning strikes and dry storms, which led to several dangerous fires starting in the space of a few hours in Dionysos, Marathonas, Vilia and Sounio," he said, adding that they had all been quickly placed under control. A valuable aid in this effort, Marinakis said, was the fact that property owners had cleared their land of undergrowth.
"We have all now understood that our country, like the rest of the planet, is being tested by drastic climate change that cause unprecedented natural disasters," he concluded, noting that there had been 1281 fires in June, or more than double the 533 fires of June 2023, while it was the warmest June on record and the forecast was similar for July on a global level.