Greek envoy to US briefs Congressional staff members

The important international role played by Greece as a major force in international shipping, which is of strategic importance for the United States and the global economy, as well as the country's heightened economic presence in SE Europe, were underlined in the briefing made to US Congressional staff members on Thursday by the Greek ambassador to Washington.

The briefing on Greek foreign policy issues, made in the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Hall, focused on Greece's role as an energy hub with the construction of energy pipelines through Greek territory, namely, the Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline carrying Caspian natural gas, the under-construction Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, the recently signed South Stream natural gas pipeline, along with the lesser-known but vital and operational Thessaloniki-Skopje pipeline.

Amb. Alexandros Mallias thanked members of the US Congress for supporting the Greek positions on the FYROM "name issue", underlining the Greek government's will to reach a mutually acceptable solution that will open the door to Euro-Atlantic institutions for the landlocked one-time Yugoslav republic north of Greece.

The veteran Greek diplomat, moreover, did not mince words in referring to FYROM. He warned that months-long intransigence by FYROM's leadership, in tandem with virulently irredentist and aggressive propaganda by pro-FYROM circles against Greece, was not behaviour inconsistent with a prospective member of Euro-Atlantic institutions.

Mallias, a former Greek envoy to Tirana, also noted that the EU and NATO hopeful experienced shaky snap elections in June and that, most recently, domestic discord has erupted in Skopje as well.

"Greek positions on the FYROM name issue are clear," Mallias said. He reiterated Athens' standing position to back a composite name with a geographic qualifier to be used in all instances, with a relevant reference in the country's constitution and on passports as well as ratification by the UN Security Council.

Additionally, the Greek ambassador referred to the Cyprus issue and efforts of the Republic of Cyprus' political leadership for a solution based on UN Security Council resolutions and European rules and principles.

Furthermore, he referred to the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, property and inheritance rights of the dwindling ethnic Greek minority in Turkey, as well as the issue of Imvros and Tenedos, two islands in the northeastern Aegean that were once predominately inhabited by ethnic Greeks before wholesale land appropriations by the Turkish state occurred.

Finally, he lamented the fact that Greece has not yet been included in the US visa waiver programme, despite pledges made by Washington since August.