USIA - FYROM Playing Positive Role in Balkans, Official Says, 97-06-16

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From: The United States Information Agency (USIA) Home Page at <http://www.usia.gov>

FYROM PLAYING POSITIVE ROLE IN BALKANS, OFFICIAL SAYS

(6/16 background briefing on FYROM president's visit) (700)

By Louise Fenner
USIA Staff Writer

He noted that Gligorov will meet with President Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Acting Secretary of Defense John White, and congressional leaders during his working visit to Washington June 17-18.

The United States supports Gligorov's "constructive approach" to the issues his country faces, the official said during the background briefing. He added, "We'd like to see continued dialogue with the Albanians -- we don't tell them how to solve their problems with the Albanians, but we want them to keep talking -- and we want them to continue to introduce a market economy and other aspects of democratization."

He called Gligorov a "survivor" both in the political sense and very literally, noting that the 80-year-old president lost his right eye in a September 1995 explosion involving a car bomb in which his driver was killed.

That same month, the official noted, the government of FYROM signed an interim accord normalizing relations with Greece that was brokered by former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. "Greek Foreign Minister Pangalos visited Skopje, and FYROM Minister of Foreign Affairs Handziski visited Greece last week. There is a high-level dialogue going on." The main issue still under negotiation, he said, is the fact that Greece does not accept the use of the name "Macedonia."

He added that Greece "is now the main economic investor in Skopje and is emerging as the top trading partner." The interim accord, he said, "has been a very good platform for launching a positive relationship."

Discussing the issue of ethnic tensions, the official said "the government, and especially President Gligorov, in our view, have taken a very constructive attitude to the Albanian minority, and they continue to maintain dialogue, which is very important and which is in contrast with the situation in Kosovo -- but it's still a very difficult situation."

The official said the United States is "positive" on FYROM's economic reforms. "We feel they have gone in the right direction. They have a lot of support from the IMF and World Bank. The IMF has continued to assess their progress as very favorable."

However, the economy is in a deep recession, "the private sector has grown, but not very fast, foreign investors have somewhat stayed away because they see it as being contiguous to a war zone, so it has been a very slow haul."

FYROM exports to Serbia were hurt by the U.N. embargo on Serbia and "by the failure of the Serbs to modernize their economy," including the road network, which makes it difficult for Skopje to get its exports to Croatia and Slovenia, the official said.

There is an OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) agreement "wherein there is an available facility for guarantees of investments. We don't yet have Ex-Im Bank credit lines.... I don't anticipate progress on that particular issue (when President Gligorov is here) because it is tied up with some other technical issues that cannot be solved during this visit."

Asked about the future of the United Nations Preventive Deployment force (UNPREDEP), which has been stationed in FYROM since 1993 and includes some 500 U.S. troops, the official said, "It is very difficult to predict when the U.N. force will be able to leave.... It depends on the situation at the time, which is when we make our call." On May 31 the U.N. Security Council extended the mandate for six months.

He said the United States has "very much favored the continuation of the U.N. mandate. We have wanted our troops to be there under a U.N. umbrella rather than on a bilateral basis." If the situation remains the same, he said, "I would imagine we would support that continuation."

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