[11] Italian philhellenes had contributed to the Greek independence, such as the jurist Vincenzo Gallina, Annibale Santorre di Rossi de Pomarolo, Count of Santarosa and Giuseppe Rosaroll.

In early 1912, during the Italo-Turkish War, Italy occupied the predominantly Greek-inhabited Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea from the Ottoman Empire.

[13] In 1913, after the end of the First Balkan War, lands of Northern Epirus were ceded to Greece, but Italy challenged the decision and in the Treaty of London the region was given to the newly created Albania.

The local Greek population was enraged and created the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus, before it was reluctantly ceded to Albania, with peace assured by Italian peacekeeping force until 1919.

[20][21][22] The Greek general Theodoros Pangalos, who governed Greece as a dictator in 1925–26, sought to revise the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 and launch a revanchist war against Turkey.

To this end, Pangalos sought Italian diplomatic support, as Italy still had ambitions in Anatolia, but in the event, nothing came of his overtures to Mussolini.

To this end, the Greek government, especially Foreign Minister Andreas Michalakopoulos, put renewed emphasis on improving relations with Italy, leading to the signature of a trade agreement in November 1926.

[25][26] During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Mussolini sought diplomatically to create "an Italian-dominated Balkan bloc that would link Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, and Hungary".

[27] Venizelos adroitly maintained a principle of "open diplomacy" and was careful not to alienate traditional Greek patrons in Britain and France.

This process culminated in the signature of the Balkan Pact between Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey and Romania, which was a counter to Bulgarian revisionism.

In December 2022, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni referred to the "close relationship" between Greece and Italy, mentioning the common issues, interests and approaches both countries share.

[33] Greece is one of Italy's main economic partners and they co-operate in many fields, including judicial, scientific and educational, and on the development of tourism, an important sector in both countries.

[38] The two countries, along with the United States, also are participating in large-scale military drills conducted on annual basis by non-NATO member Israel, which are code-named "Blue Flag", and which take place in the region of eastern Mediterranean.

[40][41] Both countries are full members of many international organizations, including NATO, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OECD and the WTO.