Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-12-01

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Chinese firms eager to see Crete cargo centre

[02] Serbs and Albanians must reconcile in Kosovo

[01] Chinese firms eager to see Crete cargo centre

"There is intense interest from China and from Chinese companies for the development of a joint investment with Greece and the creation of a new port station in Crete, which would have the size of Piraeus," Kefaloyiannis said. "About one million containers will arrive at the port annually."

Recently, the chairman of the China Shipping Group, Li Ke Lin, wrote to the government after a tour of the southern Aegean island and other Mediterranean and European countries, saying that Crete would make an excellent location for a centre to cover eastern Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Adriatic, due to its location.

"The investment will proceed immediately, and we are studying the possibility of making it through a cross-state agreement between Greece and China...The port will be in Tymbaki, on the southern coast of Crete," the minister said.

Ke Lin, who headed the nine-member delegation to sound out Crete for a port, is also deputy president of China Shipping Container Line Co Ltd.

"Due to a dizzying rise in the volume of China Shipping's containers, and in the company's services based in the Far East and the Mediterranean, creation of a transit centre in the Mediterranean is an item on our agenda," Ke Lin said in his recent letter to Kefaloyiannis and released by the ministry.

Also taking part in the trip were the chairman of China Shipping Europe (Holding) Co Ltd, Yu Zenggang; the head of the China Shipping Group's Mediterranean office, Zhu Jinze; and executives of the Hongkong International Terminal.

[02] Serbs and Albanians must reconcile in Kosovo

The proposal contained the essence of the mediatory initiative of the Socialist International in support of international efforts to arrange the status quo in Kosovo, he said.

Important political personalities with influence in the region sat at the same table for the first time in the framework of the meeting, according to an announcement made during the joint press conference held between Papandreou, Socialist International Secretary General Luis Ayala and the President of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanisev.

"An important characterisitic of our meeting was that all sides realised that whatever solution must be mutually acceptable. When the two sides, Pristina and Belgrade, shake hands and say 'yes, this is the decision', all of us will have the solution we desire. A solution that will open a new era in relations between the Serbs and Albanians of Kosovo and will constitute the best guarantee that no new conflicts will arise. Also, that no precedents will be created, negative precedents for the entire region," Papandreou said.

He termed the meeting a "historic moment for the Balkans", adding that the initiative "proved that the progressive forces of the wider region are in a position to discuss important issues of mutual interest together and not compulsorily under the auspices of some major power, as was frequently the case in the past."

Papandreou indicated that the meeting in Sofia produced "an honourable, open and very useful exchange of views" and expressed his conviction that the Socialist International will continue to address the issue during the upcoming meeting in Athens in January.

Papandreou held talks with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov on the main sectors for widening the excellent Greek-Bulgarian relations. Papandreou also held talks with the President of the Social Democrat Union (SDSM) and Prime Minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Vlado Buckovski and agreed to the strengthening of cooperation between PASOK and the SDSM with the purpose of deepening relations between the two countries.

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