ATHENS, Oct 7 (Reuters) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that "strong and model NATO ally" Greece and the United States are launching new counterterrorism information sharing between their law enforcement agencies.
During an official visit to Athens,Rubio said Greece was particularly exposed to the threats posed by mass migration and human trafficking.
"As part of our efforts to combat these common threats to our nations, we're proud to announce a new memorandum of understanding establishing a joint security program to strengthen the counterterrorism information sharing between our respective law enforcement agencies," he told reporters alongside Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis.
Greece has been an important NATO ally to the United States, offering key military facilities to safeguard security in the Eastern Mediterranean, and it leads an EU maritime mission to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Rubio and Gerapetritis presided over the sixth round of a US-Greece strategic dialogue that began in 2018 in which the sides agreed "to deepen defense ties, bolster trade and investment, and promote cultural ties," according to a joint statement.
Greece, it said, would receive $4 billion to support a long-term defense plan to increase interoperability between the two militaries and to "explore future opportunities for defense industrial base cooperation."
Gerapetritis said that Greece was willing to cooperate with the United States and offer maritime aid in the Strait of Hormuz if there is a viable peace process there.
Rubio stood by US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after US senators expressed concerns over allegations that she had threatened that the US could use its influence to undermine the Greek government.
Asked if her conduct was in compliance with State Department ethics, Rubio said: "Suffice it to say, our embassy here is doing a great job. Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here."
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac, Angeliki Koutantou, Lefteris Papadimas and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Edward McAllister, Hugh Lawson and Sanjeev Miglani)
