The Wrong Time to Close Important Diplomatic Posts

By now people will have seen media reports that a large number of American embassies and consulates are being studied for possible closure, and that the number has risen sharply from about six in Europe previously. Among those consular facilities being considered of seventeen total is the American Consulate General in Thessaloniki, along with two in Germany, five in France, and two in Bosnia Herzegovina, to name a few.

This is nothing new for the staff of our Thessaloniki Consulate General. Since my tenure as U.S. Consul General Thessaloniki ended in 2004, I am aware of two failed attempts to close the post, usually at the recommendation of inspection teams who rate the value of the consulate on many factors, not just the provision of consular services to the local resident American community, which is particularly vibrant in northern Greece.

These State Department ‘bean counters’ are less interested in the impact of their recommendations on bilateral relations, people-to-people contacts, and geopolitical issues, and look mostly at cost factors. It is obvious that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is involved here but as noted previously, internal processes in the Department also rate the utility each consulate in Europe provides against others doing the same work in other nearby countries. But it is not just bean counters, as there have been proposals by senior staffers at our Embassy in Athens to convert Thessaloniki into a Virtual Presence Post (VPP), which basically means access to consular services is online only, with no diplomats physically posted in the city. Another bad idea that went nowhere, fortunately.

It is not at all clear that many of these budget-driven closure plans will proceed as there will certainly be pushback from concerned citizen groups and ethnic lobbying organizations that Secretary Rubio will have to consider carefully. The Consulate General in Thessaloniki has grown in staffing in recent years, so there are now three U.S. diplomats posted there. This is a substantial increase from the recent past where the post languished for a long period with a single U.S. diplomat running the show.

But because of the geopolitical importance of Thessaloniki, and now Alexandropouli, as defense and transit centers for NATO in Southeast Europe, and northern Greece as a regional energy hub and center for technology, as well as American education and innovation, the geostrategic value of keeping multiple sets of eyes and ears in the region has surged, which is why staffing has grown.

There may well be room for some downsizing in place of full closure for our Consulate General, a pattern we have seen before as the region evolves. Through the years, the Consulate General had become a critical Balkan listening post, later a logistics and coordination hub for setting up our Balkan embassies, an important point of outreach to Greeks outside the capital Athens, and now provides services that are essential to the Ukraine war support effort and European energy security.

We also need to recall that any decision regarding Thessaloniki would become controversial in the upcoming Senate hearings for incoming Trump administration Ambassador-designate Kimberly Guilfoyle, who certainly has more direct access to the President than many career diplomats who are facing similar closures in their countries.

It would be a deeply negative signal for Secretary Rubio to be stuck swearing in a new Ambassador who would be dispatched to preside over the closing of such an important diplomatic outpost at a time when U.S.-Greece relations are near their zenith.

Alec Mally, Athens. Former U.S. Consul General Thessaloniki

Source’s link: https://www.thenationalherald.com/the-wrong-time-to-close-important-diplomatic-posts/