Hurdles to concluding the concession sale to Piraeus port to China’s Cosco Group are being cleared, with the final one expected to be overcome before the end of the month, when parliament is due to vote of the Euro 668.5m ($750m) deal.

On 22 June Greece’s competitions committee gave the greenlight to the deal between the country’s privatisation agency, Taiped, and Cosco, signed early April. Though there is still strong opposition to the deal by some, parliament is expected to vote in favour, before Prime minister, Alexis Tsipras is due to board the plane for Beijing, July 2.

The official state visit was under a cloud after Beijing warned ut wanted the Piraeus issue cleared before Tsipras visited. Indeed, it looked at one stage as if the departure date would be put back.

But now there is much to look forward to as relations between Beijing and Athens are set to further warm fueled by several development in the past few days.