Athens, 26 August 2009
Mr. Delavekouras: Good morning.
Regarding the programme of activities for this week:
Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis met at 11:00 this morning, at the Foreign Ministry, with the outgoing Cypriot Ambassador to Athens, Mr. Georgios Georgis.
This evening, Ms. Bakoyannis will host a working dinner for the new NATO Secretary General, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is carrying out a two-day visit to our country – today and tomorrow, 26 and 27 August. Defense Minister Meimarakis will also attend the dinner.
Tomorrow at 11:00, Ms. Bakoyannis will meet at the Foreign Ministry with Mr. Rasmussen. The agenda for their talks will include the working out of the Alliance’s new strategic concept, its operations and missions – including Afghanistan and Kosovo, confronting piracy off the coast of Somalia – NATO-EU and NATO-Russian relations, enlargement of the Alliance, and issues of regional and international interest.
Ms. Bakoyannis will also brief the NATO Secretary General Greek-Turkish relations, on the state-of-play of negotiations on the FYROM name issue, and the Greek OSCE Chairmanship’s efforts to give impetus and create the conditions for a structured dialogue on the European Security issue.
Following his meeting with Ms. Bakoyannis, the NATO Secretary General will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and he will then have a meeting with the Prime Minister. You will be briefed regarding this meeting by the Prime Minister’s Press Office.
Finally, at 12:00 on Thursday, 3 September, Ms. Bakoyannis will meet at the Foreign Ministry with her Cypriot counterpart, Mr. Markos Kyprianou, who will be carrying out a working visit to Athens. They will make statements to the news media at 13:00 and a working luncheon will follow, at 13:30.
At the meeting, they will discuss the course of the negotiations between President Christofias and the representative of the Turkish Cypriot community, Mr. Talat.
At 10:30 on Thursday, 3 September, Deputy Foreign Minister Yannis Valinakis will meet at the Foreign Ministry with the Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council for the Balkans, Mr. Biscevic.
Today at 10:30, Deputy Foreign Minister Theodore Kassimis met at the Foreign Ministry with Metropolitan Emmanuel of France. On Friday, 28 August, at 12:30, Mr. Kassimis will participate in the preparatory meeting of agencies responsible for coordinating the Greek participation in the 35th Session of the General Conference of UNESCO. This meeting will take place at the Foreign Ministry’s Sofianopoulos Hall.
Are there any questions, please?
Mr. Kapoutsis: My question is this: Among what you mentioned from the agenda for the Bakoyannis-Rasmussen talks, will it include anything that is within the framework of NATO but that also concerns Greek-Turkish relations?
Mr. Delavekouras: There will be a briefing on all of the issues related to Greek-Turkish relations. The Minister will provide a briefing on those issues as well, but they will also be discussed within the framework of the issue of NATO-EU cooperation, which is an something that has been mentioned by the Secretary General himself as an issue that he wants to discuss during his visits to Athens and Ankara.
But from us there will be a detailed briefing, like the briefings the Minister gave in Brussels in June and the briefings that have already been carried out by our Permanent Delegation to NATO regarding Turkey’s conduct throughout July in the Aegean.
Mr. Kapoutsis: There are certain specialized issues, like, for example, within the NATO framework, the single space in the Aegean for Greek-Turkish operational reasons, the new NATO commander in Larissa, and all those issues, which are technical, of course, but important, right?
Mr. Delavekouras: All the issues will be discussed. First of all, there is no issue of a single space in the Aegean. There is a radar cooperation issue – let’s make that clear. It is not the same thing.
Beyond that, this is essentially a first visit, the first exchange of views with the new NATO Secretary General, who is coming to Athens to set out his thoughts on all of the issues the Alliance is dealing with. And it is an initial opportunity for Greece to set out in detail its positions on the major issues being addressed by the Alliance, and also to raise the problems that still exist between two members of the Alliance.
All of the issues will be raised, and what I mentioned – because the Secretary General himself has shown interest in discussing this – is the issue of NATO-EU cooperation. And that is because this is an issue that needs to be confronted.
Right now, there are paradoxes in the cooperation between the two organizations. The NATO military mission and the EU civilian mission are side by side in Afghanistan, and their cooperation meets with obstacles.
Greece want these problems to be solved. That is why we are very interested in hearing the NATO Secretary General’s thoughts. But we have to bear in mind that the departure point for these problems is the paradox of Turkey’s non-recognition of an EU member state. That is the heart of the problem. Everything else follows from that. We will discuss these issues.
Greece wants there to be cooperation between the two organizations, even if this takes place in the field, with direct contact between the missions operating in, for example, Afghanistan. But this cooperation is necessary.
Mr. Papathanassiou: On his webpage, Mr. Rasmussen wrote yesterday about the Greek-Turkish bilateral differences that create problems in the missions you mentioned as well, in the Alliance. And he says his goal is to resolve these differences, but I want you to tell me whether you confirm today’s article in “Ta Nea”, which refers to confidence-building measures included in a set of ideas that Mr. Rasmussen will bring. Is Athens prepared to discuss these measures within the framework of this resolution of these differences so that the problems you mentioned can be resolved?
Mr. Delavekouras: I repeat that the new NATO Secretary General is coming on a first visit to Athens to discuss the whole range of the Alliance’s activities and for an initial exchange of views with the Greek side within the framework of his new duties.
I think it is too early right now for us to talk about specific proposals from the Secretary General. I do not want to comment on hypothetical articles and I cannot confirm this within this framework. Beyond that, what we want from this discussion is to hear what the Secretary General has to say, how he sees things – for him to have the opportunity to hear Greece’s views on the issues, because these are not new issues.
And beyond that, to move ahead, always oriented towards the more effective operation of the Alliance, within the framework of which it is necessary for obstacles such as the ones I mentioned to be removed. And that is why obvious things have to be done, like the recognition by a candidate for EU accession and a NATO member – Turkey – of an existing member of the European Union: the Republic of Cyprus.
Mr. Papathanassiou: Will the Minister raise the issue of over-flights, violations, infringements and all that?
Mr. Delavekouras: Certainly. As I said earlier, there will be a detailed briefing on all the issues.
The new Secretary General is already up to scratch from the briefings carried out by our Permanent Delegation to NATO, but this visit will give us the opportunity for a detailed discussion here in Athens.
Thank you very much.