[ALBSA-Info] Kathimerini

[Agron Alibali]

Papandreou and Powell get together
Olympics, terrorism, Balkans, Cyprus, American forces in Greece and energy on agenda at first official meeting

At the first official meeting between Papandreou and Powell to take place today (they are shown here at a meeting in Brussels two months ago), all the vital issues concerning both countries will come up, in the presence of the entire State Department leadership. 
By Tom Ellis 
Kathimerini 
WASHINGTON - Preparations for the 2004 Olympics, the fight against terrorism, cooperation in the Balkans, the status of the American armed forces in Greece, a review of Greek-Turkish relations and the Cyprus issue are on the agenda at the first official bilateral meeting between Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and his American counterpart Colin Powell today at the State Department. 
Also under discussion will be Greece's participation in the network conveying energy resources from Central Asia to Europe, and American interest in the prospect of weapons sales to Greece when the next stage of the armaments program is implemented. 
The meeting will include a working dinner and will last about an hour and a half. According to one American official, the fact that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will attend the meeting, and Undersecretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman will attend the meal is an indication of the importance Powell ascribes to the event. 
Immediately after the State Department meeting, Papandreou will be received at the White House by Vice President Dick Cheney, a powerful figure in the Bush administration, and then he will visit Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. 
Terrorism 
For the first time in years, a Greek foreign minister, who has come to Washington to meet the head of American diplomacy, is in a strong position, thanks to recent moves by the Greek government. The improvement in Greece's image, which is reflected in this year's State Department report, will assist Papandreou, who will be under much pressure in private in connection with arrests of suspects and sentences of those responsible for the murders of American officials in Athens over the past 26 years. 
Both the Bush government and the outgoing US Ambassador to Athens Nicholas Burns seem to have realized that any public criticism on the sensitive issue of terrorism is usually counterproductive. 
For this reason, on both occasions when Powell himself was asked to comment on the issue, he expressed his confidence in Greece's ability to organize a safe Olympic Games. An American official noted that it would be wrong to assume from Powell's positive public statements that the US is satisfied and will lift the pressure when it is concerned about the delay in passing the bill on terrorism. Terrorism will be the main issue at Papandreou's meeting today with CIA chief George Tenet at CIA headquarters. 
As for the Balkans, the foreign minister will attempt to highlight the role of Greece and to reinforce the close cooperation that has developed between the two governments in dealing with the crisis in FYROM. 
Following the departure of Madeleine Albright, the reversal of the humanitarian approach to developments in the Balkans and the diminished influence of the Albanian lobby in Washington, the policies of both countries are almost identical. At the same time, Washington strongly supports Greek investments in the Balkans, for example, by the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, using the American company Motorola's know-how. Powell will ask Papandreou for confirmation of the Greek offer of $500 billion in economic aid over the next five years, none of which has yet been deposited. Powell will show particular interest in the status of the American armed forces in Greece, and will press for a signature to the agreement that has been outstanding since 1998, and which covers American forces active in the region (Larissa command and KFOR). 
He will argue that the Greek refusal to sign the agreement is not consistent with close cooperation in the Balkans. But Greek diplomatic sources say that for the present Athens will not agree. 
Papandreou will call on the US to urge Turkey to resume the proximity talks between Greek-Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. He will also ask the US to support Cyprus's EU accession bid, and not to permit Ankara or Denktash to virtually hold the Republic of Cyprus hostage. 
Congress members from both parties made the same request in a letter to Powell last week. 
The Bush government will not take a stand on the issue, so that it is able to exert pressure on both sides during the crucial phase in 2002. It will confine itself to an expression of support for the Helsinki agreement, which in fact allows for every eventuality. 
"For the moment, our position is that we want to see Cyprus reunited and the whole island accede to the EU," an American official told Kathimerini recently. 
Powell will ask for understanding and flexibility in dealing with the Turkish demand to participate in decisions concerning the European army. 
Energy sources 
Given the Bush government's emphasis on energy and the close connections of all its leading members with the oil industry, it would be useful if the Greek foreign affairs minister were to present Cheney and the other officials he talks to with ideas for the potential involvement of Greece in the oil pipeline from the Caspian to the West. Besides, even the US National Energy Policy, which the White House made public last Thursday, calls on Powell to encourage Greece and Turkey to improve the gas supplies to Europe by combining their existing and future natural gas pipelines and oil pipelines. 
The Americans want to participate in Greece's next purchase of weapons systems, once it has been decided when that will take place. Lockheed Martin is pushing to sell its Joint Strike Fighter to Greece to replace the Eurofighter, while General Dynamics wants to supply the Greek army with the latest M1A2 tanks. 
During his five-day stay in Washington, Papandreou will also meet Congress members, including Republican Senate leader Trent Lott, and he will speak to four security foundations in Washington: The Foreign Affairs Council, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Heritage Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson Center. 
Tom Miller, the new US Ambassador to Athens 
Papandreou's visit takes place just a few days after the announcement of the forthcoming appointment of Tom Miller as the new US ambassador to Athens for the crucial years 2001-04. His tour of duty will coincide with the terms of Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis and US President George W. Bush, and the run up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. 
Miller is currently US ambassador to Sarajevo, and is a former special State Department coordinator on the Cyprus issue. He has a profound knowledge of Greece and Greek issues and speaks Greek. He has had two former postings to the US Embassy in Athens; In the 1980s he was an attache and in the 1990s he was chargŽ d'affaires. 
It will be interesting to see how he handles the terrorism issue, as he is known for his sensitivity on this matter. He has served in the State Department's anti-terrorism service, and he knew Captain William Norden, who was murdered in Greece in 1987. 
Miller was the man who made the announcement in 1995 outside Andreas Papandreou's villa in Ekali of an agreement between the then-prime minister and Kiro Gligorov on the change in FYROM's flag and constitution. In 1997-99 Miller served as a special State Department coordinator for the Cyprus issue, and since 1999 has been US ambassador in Bosnia. He was a colleague of Richard Holbrooke, working with him on the FYROM issue, in his attempts to halt the war in Bosnia, and later on the Cyprus question, when the architect of Dayton became the president's envoy. 
Tom Miller will replace Nicholas Burns in the summer, or autumn at the latest. (Yesterday, Burns was appointed by Bush as ambassador to NATO, pending confirmation by the Senate.)



---------------------------------
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes  -  Got something to sell?
-------------- next part --------------
HTML attachment scrubbed and removed