Greek, Dutch FMs discuss EU-Turkey ties, Lebanon

Greek, Dutch FMs discuss EU-Turkey ties, Lebanon
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Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis on Thursday echoed standing Greek policy amid increased pressure on EU candidate-state Turkey to extend a customs union with the Union's 10 new member-states, a decision Ankara has flatly rejected in order to avoid extending the pact to EU member Cyprus.
Bakoyannis, who met with her visiting Dutch counterpart Bernard Bot here, also clarified that discussions on trade or customs regulations are independent of Turkey's standing commitments to the Union.
Both foreign ministers discussed the situation in Lebanon, while Bakoyannis briefed Bot over Athens' initiatives at the UN Security Council following the assumption of the body's rotating chair by Greece this month.
"The EU's significant participation in the international force to be deployed in Lebanon is a positive development for a Europe that wants to have a crucial role in international affairs," she said, adding: "It is very difficult if not impossible for stability and peace to exist in the Middle East without a solution to the Palestinian issue".
On his part, Bot said the course of Euro-Turkey relations depends on Ankara's compliance with its commitments to the EU, noting that "numerous opportunities" are available and that the next few months will determine the degree of such implementation.
He also referred to a "mutual trust" between the two sides, the Union and Turkey, and that the predominately Muslim country's European orientation is important to both as well.
In an unrelated development, Bakoyannis stressed that an investigation ordered by the Greek government failed to turn up any evidence whatsoever that CIA "rendition flights" were aided or facilitated on Greek territory.

Caption: FM Dora Bakoyannis with her Dutch counterpart Bernard Bot in Athens on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006. ANA-MPA photo / O. Panagiotou.