Greece needs time to come up with proposals for debt repayment

(Baonghean.vn) - On Sunday, February 1, while stopping in Paris, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis announced that he hopes a general agreement on Greece's financial situation will be reached by "the end of May".

Not long ago, Mr. Varoufakis himself announced that he “rejected” the €7 billion bailout offered by the European Union and announced that he would seek new agreements with Athens’ international creditors. Mr. Varoufakis stressed that these agreements would not include seeking “new loans.”

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and his counterpart Michel Sapin on February 1. Photo: Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

The entire European Union is now closely watching the “first steps” of the Athens government, which was elected on January 26 with a promise to end austerity measures. Asked about how long it would take for Greece to recover from financial turmoil, Varoufakis said the government needed “a little more time” to explain itself to Athens’ various partners.

In response to Minister Varoufakis’s comments, Michel Sapin, the French Minister of Finance, said that France would “support, facilitate and always be there to help all parties find a solution that allows everyone to overcome the difficulties.” At the same time, Sapin also believed that the coming days would be “the most peaceful days.”

France is the first stop on a tour of European countries by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who is seeking new agreements to ease Greece’s debt burden. However, on this trip, Varoufakis seems to have “forgotten” to talk to Germany again. On the German side, a spokesman for the finance ministry said that the country had not “received any official request” from the new Greek government.

Also on Sunday afternoon, when asked about the crisis in Greece, President Barack Obama said that "we cannot continue to push countries that are in a state of collapse." However, according to President Obama, at some point, countries also need to have a development strategy to repay their debts.

Chu Thanh– according to LeMonde 1/2