East Thrace includes two narrow straits, provides access to the Mediterranean from the Black Sea for the navies of five countries: Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and Georgia. The region also serves as a future connector of existing Turkish and European high speed rail networks. East Thrace includes all in the eastern part of the historical region of Thrace. The area includes all the territories of the Turkish provinces of Edirne, Tekirdağ and Kırklareli, as well as those territories on the European Continent of the provinces of Çanakkale and Istanbul. Due to the moderating effect of the surrounding seas, the climate tends to
Eastern Macedonia and Thrace prefectures, except for Thasos, which was part of the Kavala prefecture. Unlike the former prefectures, the regional units however have very limited administrative powers. Along with Central Macedonia, the region is supervised by the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace based at Thessaloniki. The political post of the Regional governor () was also created in the course of the Kallikratis reform and can be considered the successor of the former prefects. The current governor is Christos Metios, who succeeded in November 2016 deceased Giorgos Pavlidis (Nea Dimokratia). Pavlidis was elected in the 2014 regional election, beating the incumbent first-ever regional