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2026 Future of Energy Summit: Alexandros Costopoulos on Greece’s Comeback
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Greece used to be shorthand for economic crisis. Now it’s being treated as a strategic hub for the transatlantic economy, connecting Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, and North Africa. We sit down with Alexandros, Chairman of the US Greece Trade and Investment Council and CEO of Foresight, to unpack what actually changed: structural reforms, a rebuilt growth model, and the return of credibility that attracts foreign direct investment across banking, real estate, infrastructure, and major projects. Even the surge in US tourism and weekly flights becomes a tangible sign that confidence is back.
From there, we zoom out to geoeconomic competition, where trade, security, and technology collide. With war in Europe, tensions across the Middle East, supply chain shocks, and climate pressure all hitting at once, long-term predictability becomes the rare asset investors and operators crave. Alexandros explains why collaboration between business and government is no longer optional, and how Greece’s regional relationships give it outsized influence across Southeast Europe, the Balkans, and up toward Ukraine.
We also get specific about the Eastern Mediterranean energy picture and the “vertical corridor” concept: not just LNG and pipelines, but an ecosystem that includes telecommunications, fiber optics, cyber defense, and the services that grow around critical infrastructure. The biggest kicker is the convergence of energy and data. As AI and data centers scale, power demand explodes, making energy security and digital security inseparable. If you care about energy security, digital infrastructure, and where global capital is headed next, this conversation connects the dots.
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Welcome And Meet Alexandros
SPEAKER_00Chairman of the US Greece Trade and Investment Council and founder and CEO of Foresight. For more than two decades, Alexander has been a leading voice in strengthening commercial investments and strategic ties between the US, Greece, and the broader Eastern Mediterranean region. His work sits at the intersections of business, politics, geopolitics, and international investments, making him an ideal voice to close today's conversations on global trade, energy security, and economic opportunities. Alexandros, you deal it's very difficult to work in an environment where you have to travel a lot to Greece. You're very blessed.
SPEAKER_01It's very difficult to have having to leave Greece to travel anywhere else, especially now during summer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. How you can work in such a beautiful environment.
SPEAKER_01It's challenging.
Greece’s Economic Turnaround
SPEAKER_00Okay. You have to tell us how to how to do it. So thank you for being here. Um I want to ask you. Uh a decade ago, Greece was often viewed through the lens of economic crisis. Today, it is increasingly seen as a strategic hub connecting Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa. What has driven that transformation and why does it matter for the broader transatlantic economy?
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much for having me here and thank you very much for this uh uh opening question.
SPEAKER_02Uh um uh the the last 10 years, the last seven years practically have been uh a period that we had the opportunity to rebuild our economic model uh following uh a very difficult 10-year period. Uh oh Detroit. Exactly. Um that practically um reshaped uh not only the economy but also our lives. And uh the mentality everything uh the we had to tackle structural um uh lasting flows that our economy and our society had. So um I'm proud that that has been a collective effort. It seems like both the political parties, the public sector, the private sector, the businesses, um even on our personal level, as families, um uh most of most of our uh most of the Greeks have seen that as a one-way opportunity. And uh obviously we sacrificed a lot, but we have successfully reached a point now that we have a robust economy, um uh on a significant growth momentum uh above the average of the European Union. Uh we have uh reclaimed uh and re-established in the most profound way our credibility, both as a country but most importantly as a business community. Um that opened the door to uh significant um uh inflow of uh foreign direct investments. Um on every level, from institutional investments to investments in businesses, to real estate, to the banking sector. But even if you look at the traffic of US travelers to Greece, um a few years ago he had one seasonal flight from Delta to from New York uh to Athens through Delta. Now uh we have almost 105 weekly flights. Um that means that we uh moved from uh a couple of hundred thousand uh Euros uh income from tourism from uh our friends in the US to uh almost 1.5 billion. This is we we we we keep on saying that when we're talking about investments, we keep on looking to big companies and uh um data centers and the defense industry and the big tech and infrastructure projects, but to me, even that element is a significant investment from uh our friends in the US. So if you add all this together, um change the mentality of the people, as you said. It obviously when something goes on a positive trajectory that allows you to become more enthusiastic about um propelling even further that uh that condition. Um another important aspect was that uh we repositioned Greece's uh geopolitical and geoeconomic role in our broader region of Southeast Europe and the uh EastMed. And that again um uh created a new uh area of opportunities, both for Greece, but most importantly, in my opinion, for the transatlantic relation. Um and given the uh uh latest uh the the the increase of the alignment, because we always had this unique alignment between Greece and the US, but the enhancement of that alignment over the last years between uh uh the United States and Greece has uh uh uh created a new uh area of um uh of opportunities that have a direct impact in the broader region. So it's a quite uh challenging period given everything that takes place uh uh around us in our uh quite volatile neighborhood, but at the same time it's a period full of uh prospects, opportunities. And uh um as I always say, the the challenge is actually how we will position ourselves uh in front of all of those amazing things that happened uh ahead of us and lie ahead of us, and how we will change those challenges and those opportunities to substantial benefits and broadly serve benefits for our community, for our people, for our businesses, and for the transatlantic relationship.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm uh I'm very impressed because I was living in Europe during the time of Troika and see how quick and fast you transform a challenge into an opportunity and reshaping Greece at the degree of what we are seeing now. It's amazing. Many friends are traveling there, they told me, Oh, we want to come back. So very great success.
SPEAKER_02You are more than welcome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
Geoeconomics In A Crisis Era
SPEAKER_00You have written about the rise of geoeconomic competition. The idea that economics, infrastructure, technology, and security are now deeply interconnected. How is that changing the way governments and businesses think about investments and growth?
SPEAKER_02I think it changed a lot. Um we always felt like as business community, uh as business people, that the public sector, the public governance, the political community is always uh, if not in a different uh page, one page backwards than what we are. Uh however, given the uh uh peripheral tension that we have and the tremendous crisis that we face, you have to remember that um for the first time after the after World War II, we have a war in Europe. This is something that unfortunately, uh after four years, um uh we normalize that situation in an everyday life. But the truth remains that we have a war in Europe uh um uh from uh Russia to Ukraine that had an unbelievable impact uh in the economic and energy security of Europe. And just when we started to cope with that thing, we had the issue in Gaza arising that created another tension then. And um uh the moment we felt that that might go into a more stable direction, yeah, uh we had the Iran thing. Um so um I think although you are in in my my generation, I feel we have got used to be always on a crisis mode and on uh tackling simultaneously many different challenges. Um uh these are three unbelievable uh uh issues that we we have, and obviously they are even more uh uh challenging and more severe for the people in these countries that that face those uh those conflicts. Um now again given uh uh the the latest uh uh problems that we had with supply chains, given the economic volatility, given uh rising climate issues, I mean if you add all these together, uh I think we have uh a perfect storm of challenges. Now, in that situation, um I feel that the only option that you have is to move forward. Unite the forces that are willing to collaborate with each other, uh, blend your talents, your capabilities, uh, your resources, um, and move forward. And this is what we're doing, hopefully, um quite successfully. Uh I don't think that we will ever, anyone can ever be absolutely successful because there will always be those forces in any society that they will sort of drag you backwards. But um the the net result is positive, and this is this is important.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Thank you because you contributed largely in order to make to this uh to make this
Greece’s Role In EastMed Energy
SPEAKER_00happen. The Eastern Mediterranean has become one of the world's most important regions for energy, trade and also security. What role do you see Greece playing in shaping the future architecture of the region?
SPEAKER_02I think it's a renewed role that we didn't so much expect it. Uh uh first of all, uh I think for the first time actually, Greece has been the beneficiary of unfortunately negative things that happened in our region. From the war in Ukraine that uh changed the energy architecture of Greece and allow uh I'm sorry, of Europe, and allow Greece to become a critical importer of energy to the uh Eastern and Southeastern Europe through mostly the American LNG to the issues in Eastern Mediterranean, Chris somehow managed to um uh stand at the uh absolute crossroad of many changes. And in those changes, if you go back to your uh to your previous question, the fact that we had a renewed robust uh dynamic economy allowed us to um reposition ourselves not only as um you know a traditional uh stable uh and um uh reliable force that we always were in our little corner in uh in the map, but um to have an increased role and uh a stronger footprint in the regional geoeconomic relations and the geopolitical relations. So um suddenly we have uh Greece play um a dominant role in what we call the vertical corridor from the Aegean Sea up to Ukraine. Um we have Greece plays a significant role in um uh EastMed, uh especially through the 3 plus 1 partnership between uh Greece, Israel, uh um Cyprus, and the United States. Um we have new energy corridors uh that uh one way or the other are uh passing exactly uh from Greece, but at the same time you have um the issue of uh data. Uh so we have uh digital corridors that are emerging again through Greece. So we are um in a unique uh uh alignment of um you know little stars that have been aligned in such a way that Greece can be extremely useful for our friends and allies and uh enhance uh her regional footprint at the same time enhance her role with regard to the transatlantic relations.
SPEAKER_00It's great, it's pivotal, it's becoming more pivotal and pivoter. The corridor is something huge that we are building.
SPEAKER_02It is because it's uh um to us, uh we see it both um uh with my capacity at the US Greece Trade and Investment Council, but also uh uh we with our uh uh with the companies that we work with. Um it's far more than just an energy corridor. It's far more just uh uh um a streamline of American LNG uh to the countries uh uh going up to Ukraine. It's more strategic. We see it as a tremendous opportunity to create a new um a new ecosystem. Because uh frankly, and this is something that we all all you can um you can see the same thing actually in uh in maritime in shipping. Uh we always feel that shipping is uh SIP owners and uh a couple of SIP brokers. But the truth is that there is a huge ecosystem of companies around them. The same thing happens with the vertical corridor. Um it's energy, it's um um telecommunications, it's fiber optics, it's cyber defense, it's obviously um the LMG and all this uh sort of uh uh more traditional approach to the vertical corridor. If you combine the companies and the business community that can be um flarish around all those little buzzwords, uh uh allows tremendous opportunities for the local economies. And uh we know that uh stability, security, economic uh uh progress, and social prosperity are interrelated one way or the other. So if you if we see the vertical corridor as such, then the opportunities that we have to sort of um build a better tomorrow, no matter how romantic it might sound, um it's there.
SPEAKER_00It's great. One
Why Energy And Data Converge
SPEAKER_00of the most interesting themes in your commentary is the convergence of energy and data. Why are digital infrastructure, data centers, connectivity, and energy system increasingly becoming part of the same strategic conversation we just discussed a little bit about?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but in a nutshell, it goes back to actually what Secretary Bergham said uh uh back in October in PTEC in Athens, uh uh for the United States and China and basically the whole world, but these are the dominant key players, um we have uh we we have entered a period, an era uh where um the arms race of the Cold War period have become AI uh race. Um anything that has to do with AI, with advanced technologies, anything that we create with AI, anything that uh we build with that, with all that all those new uh uh elements uh that uh uh the digital economy uh offers demands tremendous amounts of energy. So whether we like it or not, energy security is digital security and vice versa. These things, one way or the other, are extremely interconnected, they're they're going together. You cannot advance in AI if you uh if you lack the uh energy dominance and uh the ability to sustain whatever you want to do. Equally, um you cannot advance in those areas unless you are able to um create a defense perimeter around them, whether it's cyber defense or whether it's uh uh air gap uh sovereign cloud systems, um that um uh sort of ecosystem of new businesses um allows us to move forward with what AI offers us. So, one way or the other, um we see that um the more we discuss about AI, the more we discuss about critical digital infrastructure, it goes back to energy.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02And this is actually something that uh we have been uh um monitoring it and uh working with it with regard to two projects that at the US Greece Trade and Investment Council we are uh focusing on, which is uh the uh reconstruction of Ukraine when hopefully uh everything will be over with the war with Russia, and uh the reconstruction of the broader region from Gaza, Liban, and Syria. Because for us, you cannot create stability and you cannot create economic growth, which is essential to have stability uh without energy. So there you have it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the president said national uh energy is national security. It is. Yeah, it is never been so true. The United States and Greece have significantly strengthened their relationship in recent years.
The Next Phase Of US Greece Ties
SPEAKER_00What do you see the greatest opportunities for deeper cooperation between the two countries in energy, infrastructure, technology, and investment, Alexandra?
SPEAKER_02Um I think um over the last uh since 2018 we have seen a tremendous increase on what we say that you the Greek uh the US Greece um bilateral relations. Uh we have reached new heights. Um to be honest, I don't know how higher we can go. Um but um the value of Greece uh for the United States is far more important than what we see within the um borders of Greece. Um the really competitive advantage of Greece, it's her footprint um both on a political, economic, and societal uh level uh in our broader region. So whether we are talking about the Southeast Europe, whether we are talking about Western Balkans, whether we are talking about Central Europe, um up to Ukraine or Poland, or whether we're talking about the uh EastMed and the Middle East, um Greece traditionally had the unique capacity to have excellent relations with all those key players around us. So to me, um that creates uh a tremendous opportunity for the transatlantic collaboration. It opens a new chapter to our bilateral relation if we use Greece as practically a pillar for American economic interest, not so much with the old-fashioned uh idea to penetrate the region, but to build solid and mutually beneficial partnerships. Um, we cannot achieve security and broadly serve prosperity, which is what we all want, unless we find a way to work together. Collaboration. Exactly. Now uh we know that from a technological perspective the US still is a dominant player. Uh in many aspects is the dominant player. At the same time, the the geopolitical volatility in our region um dictates um to find the right angle to promote certain things. I think this is where the opportunity is for use, Chris, uh economic relations. We can create a joint platform, and with that platform, we can bring those new technologies, we can open new markets, we can shape the economies in a direction that it will represent the 21st century and the abilities that are required to face the 21st century challenges that lie ahead of us. Um, this is where I think it's uh uh it's the most important competitive advantage for Greece. With regard to the United States. Obviously, it's a lasting, historic, key partner, the most reliable. We have those amazing bonds with the Greek American community. We have the Philadelphia movement that goes back to our war for independence. If you combine all those things together, then you end up with an amazing cocktail that you can bring positive change. You can do amazing things.
SPEAKER_00I like your word, you use the word together because working together makes everything stronger, better, and you know, with a big big path ahead.
SPEAKER_02Well, I started my career 28 years ago in this city, and the first thing that they told me is that no matter how skillful, uh talented, uh brilliant you are, uh you can only go that far by yourself. Anything has to happen with great friends uh that will share your vision, that will help you become better, that you will help them become better, and that you will jointly face the challenges that lie ahead, and that every day we we face new challenges, regardless if we are a tiny little company or a nation.
SPEAKER_00So what's it? So if I mention religion, but it's written in the scripture, it's written when you are together, all the benefits you have. And Jesus sent the apostle two by two, not one by one.
SPEAKER_02Well, who's guy?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, quite smart. As artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and digital infrastructure drive unprecedented demand for power and capital. How
Where Global Investment Goes Next
SPEAKER_00do you see global investment priorities evolving over the next decades?
SPEAKER_02I think this is uh a very interesting uh question uh that probably demands a four-day conference to answer it.
SPEAKER_00Um we have a little bit of that.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um the the the easy answer is that uh uh everyone in every single part of the world, uh everyone is looking for uh what we call foreign direct investments, um, which is great. Um now we know that especially in our region, um advancing AI, uh rebuilding uh Ukraine, which is perhaps one of the most consequential challenges that Europe will face in the next years, even similar to rebuilding Europe after World War II. Um rebuilding the Middle East, or at least securing a more stable situation in the Middle East, um investing in uh recovering uh and in and rebuilding all those amazing damages that happened over the last couple of months in the uh Arab Peninsula with the war in Iran. So uh although we were struggling to uh sort of um um um accept the number of investments that we need in Europe with regard to uh AI, um we had Ukraine, we had uh the Middle East, now we have the Arab world. So um I'm not sure that all those money that are needed are there. So what what in my opinion has to happen is we need to um we need somehow to package those sort of projects um in a way that uh it will not be seen only as a good business opportunity, but as a long-term investment in stability and security and prosperity. We, in my opinion, uh corporations, funds, banks, anyone who has money, and there are a lot of money available uh globally, um they will they will make far many more revenues and successes by investing in long-term prosperity and stability rather than just going after something which is attractive or hip or whatever you want to call it. Um, and there are those projects. So I think it takes a lot of discussion. We have to make priorities, uh, we have to um uh be neutral uh with regard to technologies that we might like or we might not like. Um we say very often that uh uh there is this tendency in the United States, just like in Europe, that every time a political leadership changes, uh some technologies are uh accepted, some technologies are not accepted. Which in essence it it destroys predictability, which for the business community is the number one priority. Um at the same time, we have to be realistic. Uh we have to be realistic with regard to our sustainability goals, just like we have to be realistic with regard to our uh aggressiveness into going after opportunities. Um we need to find a better balance, but I think we can find a better balance. And perhaps the biggest example, uh and the strongest example is what exactly is happening now in Ukraine. Just because they have the aggression of a nuclear power right next to them, um they went quite beyond the political divisions, the uh over-regulatory burden, the bureaucracy, and they tried to find uh quick wins, solid solutions that can you know move forward uh with stable um steps, but move forward. I think this is an example that we can follow everywhere without needing an hour to tell us how to do that.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Alexandros, the last question for you. Looking
A Values Based Vision Forward
SPEAKER_00ahead, what is your vision? Because yeah, always had a lot of vision talking about 20 years ago, 28 years ago, maybe maybe uh for the future of the US-Geece partnership, and where do you see the greatest opportunity for collaboration across the Eastern Mediterranean and the broader transatlantic economy?
SPEAKER_02I think the business the biggest opportunity is to um to unite our forces, to unite our talents. Uh the the US and the United States and Greece has proven again and again that they are uh a partnership, an alignment, a friendship, uh no matter how you want to frame it, um, that can endure crisis, that can uh shape um better tomorrow, and that can actually um unite other countries around them. And I think that um in in a world where um geopolitical volatility um uh ultra-toxicated populism uh challenges in our institutions are becoming every day uh uh something that we see more and more. Um I believe that going back to some fundamentals, uh to some principles, to some values that are um um in a way um uh uh forged uh within both the United States and Greece, regardless of the fact that we in Greece have a little more history than the United States. I think this is the most important thing that we should do. I think we have to go back a little bit to the basics. We have to go back to the to to become a little bit more value-driven, uh to uh uh reconnect uh with uh with our institutions, to rebuild our trust to those institutions. Uh, I think the challenges that lie ahead of us um uh uh require all of these things to become part of our life again, regardless if we feel disappointed or frustrated, or uh in some cases we are divided. Um we have to find a way to become one again.
SPEAKER_00You overcome already so many challenges and look at the point where we are now. In every family, there are things that are not comprehensible or we can disagree on, but at the end, what uh Greece and the relationship between Greece and the United States have demonstrated is a case study I will use everywhere, all around the world, for how smart you were in rebuilding a country after the challenging and put at the top of Europe, and uh being able to build this kind of relationship in the United States in many different ways. Yes, um, very mesmerizing me, and I'm very grateful we talk about this today because I'm sure that there's a lot to learn on how you have done uh there are even more to do together. No, absolutely, together is the key. This is what we mentioned, and it's a long path ahead, and uh the corridor is just one of the examples. Tourism is another one, but not the last, because how many Americans are now happy to go and spend time in Greece for the vacation. Thank you so much, and continue to do this.