Athens, 2 March 2026 (MIA) – Greek government’s spokesman Pavlos Marinakis in a response to a question by MIA’s Athens correspondent at Monday’s press briefing didn’t confirm the report of the newspaper Kathimerini that the Greek prime minister’s office “has been mulling an interesting idea that Kyriakos Mitsotakis should visit Skopje in the coming period” to mark the restart of the Thessaloniki-Skopje pipeline.

“I’m not aware of such visit. If there is anything, you’ll be informed by us or by the Foreign Ministry,” responded Marinakis.

In an article headlined “Proposals for Skopje visit”, Kathimerini wrote on Sunday that the idea comes as a result of a recent agreement by HELLENiQ ENERGY with the North Macedonia government over the reactivation of the 213-kilometer pipeline connecting Thessaloniki and Skopje, out of use since 2013, adding that oil derivatives, mainly diesel, would be transported from the refinery in Thessaloniki. 

“A restart would increase North Macedonia’s energy security by being energy dependent on Greece, considered an old foreign policy dogma for economic prodding in the Balkans,” wrote Kathimerini.

If a visit were to be agreed, it would be Mitsotakis’s first visit to Skopje and a second one by a Greek prime minister in the past seven years.

MIA file photo