Pompeo told an audience in Athens that the focus from the media and commentators on Trump and Ukraine is “wrong” because it does not “impact real people’s lives.”

“Instead they get caught up in some silly gotcha game,” he said, responding to a question from a Greek reporter after Pompeo delivered a speech on US-Greece relations.

He then launched into a full-throated defence of the administration’s campaign to get Ukraine’s president to agree to a corruption investigation in return for a trip to Washington and the release of military aid.

“We know exactly what we were doing there,” Pompeo said. “We were trying to create a situation where there wouldn’t be a corrupt government. We wanted to make sure that they did not interfere in our election in 2016. We wanted to make sure that if we underwrote Javelin missile systems, something that the previous administration refused to do, we wanted to make sure we were doing this with a government that was straight up and would use that money for the things that it said it would use that money for.”

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Supporters of the impeachment probe say the administration’s actions toward Ukraine raise the possibility that a president used the power of his office to get a foreign government to help him win re-election. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the formal inquiry last week, accusing the president of “betrayal of his oath of office,” betrayal of national security and betrayal of the integrity of American elections

Asked whether Greece or other US allies could expect similar political pressure from Washington, Pompeo said it was the normal way that governments deal with each one other.

“You’re going to come under enormous political pressure, let me assure you,” he said. “This is what we do. We work together in a political environment to achieve what the Greek people want. And America tries to advance its interests around the world.”

“When I talk to your foreign minister he pressures me all the time,” Pompeo said. “It is totally appropriate. Nations do this. Nations work together. They say ‘Boy, goodness gracious if you can help me with X, we’ll help you achieve Y.’ This is what partnerships do. It’s win-win.”

In Trump’s July telephone call with Ukraine’s president, Trump referred to a discredited conspiracy theory that aims to cast doubt on Russia’s role in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee and alleges that Ukraine had spread disinformation during the US election.

Pompeo also said the State Department had responded to a congressional subpoena for him to produce Ukraine-related documents. He did not say what that response was. He had faced a Friday deadline to hand over the documents, but he suggested that he had not and would instead move to comply with the subpoena at his own pace.

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“We’ll work through that process,” said Pompeo, a former congressman who was relentless in pursuing investigations into the attack on US facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

“I remember precisely once when I was on that side and we were looking for documents, I remember precisely how long it took for those documents to come across. … We’re going to be more responsive than the Obama administration was in the years that preceded this particular Congress.”

In Athens on Saturday, Pompeo met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Pompeo and his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias later signed the revised defence cooperation pact, which US officials described as critical to responding to new security challenges in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The deal provides for increasing joint US-Greece and Nato activity at Larissa, Stefanovikio, and Alexandroupoli as well as infrastructure and other improvements at Souda Bay naval base.

“Greece can play an important strategic role here in the region,” Pompeo told Mitsotakis. “This is a dynamic region, with lots going on, lots of change taking place, and we are very confident that together, we can work to ensure that Greece can be a pillar for stability in this region.”

Mitsotakis referred to recent attempts by Turkey to drill for gas in waters where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights and European energy companies are already licensed to conduct a search. He said the need for the updated agreement was underscored by actions in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean that “question the sovereign rights of Greece and Cyprus, violating international law.”

“We’ve made clear that operations in international waters are governed by a set of rules,” Pompeo said later Saturday, after his meeting with Dendias. “We have told the Turks that illegal drilling is unacceptable, and we’ll continue to take diplomatic action to make sure that we do as we do always: ensure that the lawful activity takes place in every space where international law governs … we’re working to get the parties to – everyone to de-escalate and find a set of outcomes that are mutually agreeable,” Pompeo added.

Two protests were staged in Athens against Pompeo’s meeting Saturday. The largest, by pro-communist trade unionists, attended by 5,000, according to local police, ended outside the US Embassy, where protesters burned a US and a Nato flag before dispersing. On the way, protesters twice threw paint at the statue of former US President Harry S. Truman, who had helped Greece overcome a communist insurgency in the late 1940s. Police responded with tear gas.