From: than...@athena.mit.edu (Thanos Tsekouras) Subject: Bulletin of News from the Athens News Agency for May 27, 1993 Date: 28 May 1993 04:13:35 GMT To: Boston, USA From: Geniki Grammateia Typoy 5-27-93 11:36 am Bulletin, 27/05/1993 A.N.A. Athens 27/5/93 (ANA) Premier Constantine Mitsotakis yesterday presided over a meeting on foreign policy attended by Foreign Minister Michalis Papaconstantinou and foreign ministry officials. The meeting was held at the Maximos Mansion with the attendance of undersecretaries George Papastamkos, Virginia Tsouderou and Vyron Polydoras and senior ministry officials. The Skopje and Cyprus issues were the main items on the agenda. Mr. Mitsotakis will also preside over a meeting of the inner cabinet today at 9:30 a.m. instead of tomorrow as originally scheduled. Brussels, 27/5/93 (ANA - P. Pantelis) Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis will attend the European Peoples Party summit in Brussels on June 2. The meeting will also be attended by Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, Luxemburg Prime Minister Jacques Sanders, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and by presidents of EC Christian Democrat parties. The meeting is taking place at the initiative of European Peoples Party President Wilfred Martens. The prime ministers and Christian Democrat Party leaders will discuss European Parliament matters in Copenhagen June 21 22 and adopt common positions. They will also discuss the problem posed by the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Belgian presidency's programme as well as the strengthening of the European Peoples Party in the Community. Washington 27/5/93 (ANA - D. Dimas) The Foreign Relations and Funds Appropriation Committees of the US House of Representatives yesterday began processing foreign aid funds for fiscal year 1994. Although it is a lengthy and time-consuming procedure before bodies of the Congress allocate funds, Greek interests are said to be "ensured", following the 7 to 10 ratio of aid to Greece and Turkey proposal made by the Clinton administration earlier this year. The committees are reported agreed on endorsing the administration proposal, which concurs with traditional congressional policy. The Clinton administration has proposed low interest military credits of $315 million to Greece and $450 million to Turkey. The proposal also provides free aid of $143 million to Turkey and $15 million to Cyprus. Athens, 27/5/93 (ANA) President of Parliament Athanassios Tsaldaris yesterday received Armenian Foreign Minister Vagan Papazian, currently on an official visit to Greece. The two officials discussed issues concerning relations between Greece and Armenia and exchanged views on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Balkans. President of the Parliament Athanassios Tsaldaris will be in Dublin on May 28-29 to attend to Conference of Speakers of Parliaments of EC memberstates. One of the main subjects to be discussed at the conference will be the implementation of the Maastricht treaty. Other subjects on the agenda are: the expansion of the EC relations between national parliaments and the Europarliament; the increase of members and the strengthening of the role of the Europarliament; and other subjects concerning the unification of Europe. Athens, 27/5/93 (ANA) Government spokesman Vassilis Manginas said yesterday that negotiations on the Skopje issue were still underway, in response to questions on whether ambassador George Papoulias had conveyed Athens' answer to the Vance-Owen plan to New York. "We are at a critical turning point", Mr. Manginas said but refused to give details on what stage negotiations are now at. Mr Papoulias is currently negotiating the entire issue and no deadline for Greece's answer has been set, the government spokesman said. Skopje 27/5/93 (DPA) The "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" wants to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and hopes to make a formal application within the month, the country's defense ministry said yesterday. Defense Minister Vlado Popovski said the application would come "at the latest within two to three weeks". Popovski also called on the United Nations to end its arms embargo, imposed on his country as on all former Yugoslav constituent republics. He said Skopje did not want to have to rely exclusively on UN forces in case of "external attack". Meanwhile, Skopje's arguments that recognition of the former Yugoslav republic should precede the deployment of US forces there conflict with statements by US officials, who stress that the first priority should be "the successful conclusion of Greek-Skopjan negotiations". Earlier, a US official had said that the US government was not presently considering the question of republic's recognition while Secretary of State Warren Christopher recently told a Congress Foreign Affairs committee that "reinforcing the security conditions in the 'Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia' ... is under consideration as a means of ensuring the continued independence ..." of this country. Mr Christopher has assiduously avoided questions regarding recognition of the former Yugoslav republic and seems to have kept to this tactic in his telephone conversation with Spojan President Kiro Gligorov a few weeks ago. Athens, 27/5/93 (ANA) At least 12 ministers and many senior officials from former eastern bloc countries, together with members of the Greek government headed by Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, will attend a two-day congress of the Panhellenic Association of Exporters beginning June 22. The congress will focus on ways to promote cooperation between Greece and east European countries, an association statement said yesterday. "The congress - called "Eastern Europe and the Balkans: New Business opportunities" - is, as its title suggests, business-oriented and items on the agenda will deal with special enterpreneurial conditions prevailing in those countries. A praticularly significant role will be played by officials of enterprises that have already developed activity in the region, by offering the benefit of their experience and knowledge acquired there. Discussions will also focus on the course of transition towards a market economy, the network of economic relations prevailing today between those countries, and the Community internatonal organisations and other countries. The economic and business environment for promoting trade and broader economic cooperation among those countries will also be examined. Athens, 27/5/93 (ANA) National Defense Minister Ioannis Varvitsiotis returned from Brussels yesteday afternoon after attending the spring session of NATO's Defense Planning Committee. Speaking to reporters at Athens airport, Mr. Varvitsiotis said the session focused mainly on the situation in former Yugoslavia, adding that Turkey's extreme stance "made an impression". All the other countries hailed Washington's initiative which of course distances the danger of military involvement", he said. Mr Varvitsiotis said the announcement issued at the end of the conference made special reference to the Vance-Owen peace plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina. "It seems that the Vance-Owen plan exists and the initiative by the five in Washington is positive", he said. Paris, 27/5/93 (ANA - A. Podimata) France has no plans to send troops to Skopje or Kossovo, a French foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday in response to questions by Greek journalists. Such a deployment is included in a plan for a joint action signed last Saturday in Washington by the US, Russia and three European countries. The spokesman added that the greater part of French troops already deployed in former Yugoslavia would be assigned to the defense of "UN safety zones" and that France would not contribute more troops to UN forces appart from the 5,000 already there. [Copied by Thanos Tsekouras]