Subject: A.N.A. Bulletin 22/9/93 From: miltos@nfl2.irc.nrc.ca Athens News Agency Bulletin, September 22, 1993 =============================================== Athens, 22/9/1993 (ANA): Premier Constantine Mitsotakis yesterday toured Piraeus and its surrounding regions, the first visit ever by a Prime Minister. Mr. Mitsotakis inspected various projects totalling 115 billion drachmas, currently in progress at Piraeus harbour, Keratsini and Perama. "I am impressed by the work achieved in Piraeus", Mr. Mitsotakis said. "New Democracy can feel proud of what has been done in the past three years. This includes schools for 15,000 children and a physical education and athletics hall apart from major at the harbour". Athens, 22/9/1993 (ANA): Caretaker Interior Minister Ioannis Georgakis said yesterday that political parties were not entitled to any special financial support, adding that legal obstacles prevented such support. He said, however, that the parties will receive sums due to them from support granted in 1991 and 1992. Consequently the following sums will be paid: New Democracy, 1,236 million drachmas; PASOK 1,033 million drachmas; Coalition of the Left and Progress and Communist Party of Greece 169 million drachmas each. The Political Spring party is not entitled to any financial support. United Nations, 22/9/1993 (ANA - M. Georgiadou): UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali's annual report on UN affairs yesterday said that ongoing negotiations between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) under the aegis of the UN are "aimed at reducing tensions created by the recognition of the latter's independence". More specifically, it refers to "the draft agreement containing special clauses on promoting friendly relations and the taking of confidence-building measures and clauses on friendly neighbourliness and co-operation between the two neighbouring countries". Matters concerning the deployment of UNPROFOR forces in Skopje are included in the report's chapter on "preventive diplomacy" to avoid the spreading of conflicts in various parts of the world, the UN's new ambitious plan. "It is the first time in the UN's history that military units were deployed in the framework of preventive diplomacy", it added. The measure of deploying UNPROFOR on FYROM's border with Albania and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was taken to prevent a wider Balkan war, it said. Athens, 22/9/1993 (ANA): In a speech opening the sessions of the US Executive Committee of the Association of State Democratic Party Chairs at the Pnyx yesterday, Parliament President Athanasios Tsaldaris evoked the birth of Democracy in ancient Athens 2,5000 years ago. Addressing the visitors, Mr. Tsaldaris said: "You represent the first country of the new age to have laid democratic principles as the foundations on which rests the organisation of your country, the United States". "Restoring democracy and, in particular, enhancing it, is a common responsibility shared by all of us. But it is mainly your responsibility, that of the US, as the most powerful democratic power in the world", Mr. Tsaldaris stressed. Athens, 22/9/1993 (ANA): In a message to a recycling conference held Monday at the Thessaloniki International Fair, Defence Minister Ioannis Varvitsiotis reaffirmed that the Greek armed forces will proceed dynamically in the sector of environmental protection. The message said 1992 had been proclaimed environment year for the armed forces. Results of its campaign were very encouraging, it said. Over the last 20 months, three million aluminium cans were collected yielding 5.5 million drachmas which was used exclusively to improve living conditions for recruits. Apart from this campaign, Greece is participating in many NATO committees probing ecological issues in which Greek positions are set out as well as actions by the Greek armed forces in the recycling sector, it said. New York, 22/9/1993 (ANA - M. Georgiadou): The New York Shipping Co-operation Committee's board, whose members represent the whole spectrum of Greek shipping activities in the United States, gave a dinner in honour of Greece's ambassador Loukas Tsilas last Friday. The committee's representatives told Mr. Tsilas of the need for the organised presence of Greek shipping interests in the US capital where crucial shipping decisions are taken and for presence at international organisations playing a decisive role in the future of the sector. Mr. Tsilas offered assurances that Greece and he personally will assist the effort in every possible way. To this end, he said, he will have a series of contacts with government officials in Washington and international organisations. Board chairman Takis Tsevdos thanked Mr. Tsilas and outlined its organisational issues. Athens, 22/9/1993 (ANA): Turkey should understand that it cannot continue its intransigence on a Cyprus settlement, Foreign Minister Michael Papaconstantinou said in Thessaloniki yesterday. Speaking to reporters on his return from a meeting of European Community foreign and farm ministers in Brussels, Mr. Papaconstantinou said Turkey should realise that after the Middle East, Cyprus' turn for a settlement had come, and Greece expected progress on that issue. He implied that Turkey's relations with the EC were directly linked to progress on the Cyprus issue. Responding to a question on talks relating to Turkey's customs union with the EC at Luxembourg on October 4, Mr. Papaconstantinou said he thought that Turkey was not yet ready legislatively for such an agreement, also recalling there was already a related assessment by the Community on Cyprus, which was unfavourable to Turkey. He referred to the UN secretary general's report to the Security Council on the Cyprus issue as "objective", since it went further than just pinning blame on Turkish Cypriots and laid prime responsibility on turkey itself. In his report, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali blamed the Turkish Cypriot side for the lack of agreement on a package of UN-proposed confidence-building measures designed to smooth the way for an overall solution. Turning to results of the foreign ministers' conference in Brussels, Mr. Papaconstantinou said he was happy issues relating directly to Greek agriculture and removing barriers in shipping matters had been settled. He said Greece had assured Bulgarian and Romanian delegates it would help with their future admission to the Community. Referring to Cyprus bid for membership of the Community, which will be discussed at Luxembourg on October 5, Mr. Papaconstantinou said the island republic was already in the "orbit of entry" to the EC. Athens, 22/9/1993 (ANA): An initiative to elaborate and promote a Community strategy to enhance economic relations between the EC and Russia is underway at the National Economy Ministry in light of Greece's forthcoming assumption of the EC rotating presidency, National Economy Minister Stephanos Manos announced yesterday. "We believe Greece has a unique opportunity to help both the EC and Russia establish a long-term strategy to benefit both parties. We are the only member of the European Community which has maintained peaceful trade relations with Russia for over a thousand years, and the only member country of the Community that shares the Orthodox faith and significant cultural similarities with Russians. That enables us to act as a bridge between the EC and Russia", Mr. Manos stressed. "We view Russia as a prime pole in a process aimed at including other countries of the former Soviet Union as well", Mr. Manos added. A team of experts has been working with the National Economy Ministry, the Organisation for Exports Promotion, and an international consultant company on matters of strategy for months, the minister said. The team includes some of the best known international experts on Russian affairs. The operation is based on a two prong strategy; one involving strategy aimed at facilitating co-operation between European and Russian enterprises but not necessarily exclusively major ones since development hinges on recruiting many small and medium size enterprises in both regions; and the other taking into account cultural, economic and political realities, involving establishing contact between a series of private and public agencies in the Community, the European Commission and Russia. The object, Mr. Manos said is to pinpoint problems in economic relations between the EC and Russia, and elaborate a Greek initiative in co-operation with Greece's Community partners. Mr. Manos said he had kept European Commission President Jacques Delors posted on all facets of the initiative, and would remain in constant touch with him. Athens, 22/9/1993 (ANA): Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis is to declare open the 39th General Assembly of the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) at the Athens Concert Hall on September 29. The event, sponsored by the Greek Union for Atlantic and European Co-operation, the organisation's sole legal representative in Greece, will end October 2. The assembly will address "Nato's answer to modern European challenges"; special committees will convene to examine issues such as Nato's role in relation to the UN and the CSCE and common strategy among international organisations. Representatives of NATO countries and central and eastern European nations are to attend the meeting: Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev and Speaker of the Italian Senate Giovanni Spadolini are also due to attend, along with Czech, Hungarian and Romanian leaders. National Defence Minister Ioannis Varvitsiotis and Foreign Minister Michalis Papaconstantinou will also address the meeting. Main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) leader Andreas Papandreou has also been invited to speak in addition to party leaders and personalities from the political, military and scientific sectors.