Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos (1st L, Front) and his Portuguese counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (2nd R, Front) review the guard of honor during an welcome ceremony in Athens, Greece, on March 13, 2018. Greece can count on Portugal's support to tackle common challenges, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told Greek political leaders on Tuesday during his official visit in Athens. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
ATHENS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Greece can count on Portugal's support to tackle common challenges, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told Greek political leaders on Tuesday during his official visit in Athens.
"Greece will fully meet the obligations it has undertaken... We are confident that our partners will do their part to ensure that Greek debt becomes manageable," his Greek counterpart Prokopis Pavlopoulos said while welcoming de Sousa at the presidential mansion.
The Portuguese leader responded that the Greek people can count on Portugal's support and expressed his admiration for their efforts during the past eight years of the debt crisis.
"I know that this is a historic moment for Greece. You can count on Portugal, "he repeated during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, referring to Greece's upcoming exit from the bailout programs this summer.
"Portugal is a positive example for us, because it managed to leave behind this adventure of the program earlier, and this acts as a precedent that I believe is binding for creditors so that they handle similar problems in the same way," the Greek prime minister said.
"We will be done with the program this August and we already see a big difference in the economic figures. We hope that we can bring a change also to the social indexes and to people's sense of the real economy as well, exactly as happened in Portugal," Tsipras added.
