BERLIN — The new Greek government’s debt-diplomacy tour of European capitals hit another rough patch on Thursday, as the country’s new finance minister and his German counterpart groped for common ground in their first meeting. They even failed to reach an agreement on whether or not they disagreed.
The Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has been petitioning important European officials to help Athens find relief from Greece’s staggering debt, much of which it owes to the rest of Europe. A crucial goal for Mr. Varoufakis is to renegotiate the terms of repaying the 240 billion euros, or $274 billion, the country received in two international bailouts.
In a joint news conference here on Thursday after their private meeting, Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister who helped to draw up the agreement that Mr. Varoufakis would now like to revise, sought to praise his new counterpart. He stressed their common desire to find a solution for Europe and described the talks as “open and intense.”
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But European forecasters cut the expected growth for Greece this year to 2.5 percent, from 2.9 percent, saying that could only be reached on the condition of “full implementation of the program” agreed to with the country’s European creditors.
Jack Ewing contributed reporting from Frankfurt.
