Newly-appointed Deputy Foreign Minister for Overseas Greeks Antonis Diamataris took over his portfolio from Terens Quick during an official exchange. He said that he would do whatever possible to further strengthen relations between Greece and expatriate Greeks, a group he knows well during his tenure as owner and publisher of the National Herald newspaper in the United States.

During the handover, Mr Diamataris said: “I served the Greeks of America for 40 full years from the position of publisher and manager of the National Herald, a daily paper founded in 1915.” He spoke of the paper’s role in conveying information to Greeks so that they could retain their national identity.

He also recognised Mr Quick’s efforts to ensure that bridges between Greece and the diaspora were open.

READ MORE: Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick out of Greek parliament

Mr Quick, a former journalist himself, said that Mr Diamataris role as one has ensured that he “has the pulse of the people and knows Greeks abroad and in the US in particular better than anyone else.”

Reviewing his tenure, Mr Quick said that over the last two years and 8 months he tried to visit the Greek diaspora in the world. “There were Greek communities that saw a minister from their Greek homeland visit them for the first time, or a government representative for the first time in 48 years,” Mr Quick said. “In Sub-Saharan countries, Greeks are very dynamic very dynamic in business acumen if not in numbers,” he said, adding that they are regions where “we are beginning to build again bilateral diplomatic and political relations.”

READ MORE: Greek American Antonis H. Diamataris the new Deputy Minister for Expatriate Greeks

He also noted he never involved party politics in his visits and he presented Diamataris with the draft bill for a new Council of Greeks Abroad, which includes “two significant parametres, its self-organisation and its self-funding.”