Greece advocates Yugoslavia's closer ties
with Nato
BELGRADE
;) |
| Greek Defence Minister Yiannos
Papantoniou inspects the Yugoslav Army guard of honour upon arrival
in Belgrade on June 18 |
GREECE and Yugoslavia oppose any change to Balkan borders and
will work together to preserve peace in the volatile region, the
countries' defence ministers said on June 18.
During talks between Greek Defence Minister Yiannos Papantoniou and his
Yugoslav counterpart, Velimir Radojevic, both officials agreed the two
countries would strive for a greater level of security in the Balkan
peninsula.
Papantoniou stressed that Greece supports efforts of Yugoslavia's new
democratic leadership - which overthrew former President Slobodan
Milosevic's autocratic regime - to bring the once ostracised country back
into the European mainstream. As a Nato member, Greece is also sympathetic
to Yugoslavia's hopes of joining the alliance's Partnership for Peace
programme, Papantoniou said. In April, Yugoslavia applied to become part
of the Nato programme that allows non-Nato countries to participate in
many alliance activities and aims to create stability and stronger ties
among participants.
Papantoniou also said that Greece would continue to help Yugoslavia
upgrade its military training as a preparation for joining the Nato
programme. Earlier this year, Greece promised to spend more than 530
million euros over the next five years as part of a plan to help
reconstruct the Balkans following the wars that ravaged part of the region
in the last decade.
Some of those funds are expected to be gradually allocated to help
build up the industrial, communications, energy and transportation sectors
in Yugoslavia.
After Yugoslavia, the Greek defence minister visited Ljubljana,
Slovenia, where he discussed with his counterpart Anton Grizold the
prospects of Slovenia's accession to the European Union and Nato and
bilateral cooperation. He also met with Slovenian President Milan Kucan
and other officials. In his talks, Papantoniou notified the Slovenian
government of Greece's steadfast position that "if there will be problems
from some countries regarding Cyprus' EU accession process, this will also
mean on the part of Greece the suspension of EU enlargement processes in
general."
Slovenia is among the countries included in the first wave of accession
to Nato and the EU at the end of the year.
(AP, ANA)
ATHENS NEWS , 21/06/2002 , page: A08
Article code: C12967A082
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