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.

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