By Jean Christou
BRITAIN, Greece and Cyprus yesterday rejected US President Bill Clinton’s call for a ‘package deal’ to resolve the Cyprus problem together with broader Greco-Turkish differences.
Clinton told a press conference in London on Monday that the problems could not be solved in isolation and said: “we will have to proceed on many fronts at once.”
“President Clinton’s statements were expected and are in the framework of the declared positions of US policy,” government spokesman Christos Stylianides said.
He said the government considered the comment as part of US policy that regional issues should be progressing in parallel.
But the Cyprus government does not believe there should be a give-and-take on these issues just to facilitate US policy, and that, although there is a link, the two issues are independent of each other.
“Any positive developments in Greco-Turkish relations will inevitably facilitate the climate of procedures in the Cyprus problem and vice versa,” Stylianides said.
“If this linkage moves in a positive manner this will be helpful in efforts to solve these regional issues.”
Britain also believes the two issue are separate.
Following a meeting yesterday with President Clerides, David Reddaway, head of the Foreign Office’s Southern European Affairs Department said there was no formal package on the Cyprus problem and Greco-Turkish relations.
“They are separate issues in our analysis. It may be that one issue has an influence on another but there isn’t a package approach,” Reddaway said.
He expressed the hope that this week’s visit to Turkey by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook would help EU-Turkey relations on a positive path. “But I think talk of a package in our terms is possibly a bit misleading,” Reddaway said.
In Athens, Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos also rejected Clinton’s comments.
“I don’t exactly know what Mr Clinton meant. We repeat we don’t accept a package deal,” Pangalos said.
He said the division of Cyprus was an international problem dealt with by the United Nations, while Greek-Turkish territorial differences were another matter.
“We listen to the US positions with much interest, but (Clinton’s) suggestions about what Europe should do or what Greece should do is another matter,” Pangalos said.
“This can’t be accepted by Europe or by Greece,” he explained. “Would the United States want a country in the state Turkey is currently in as a 51st state? Why should Europe want it as a 16th or a 20th member?”
