5/25543
Annex
Letter dated 6 Apri1 1993 from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece addressed to the President of the
Security Council
I write to inform you that the Government of Greece considers the draft resolution currently before the Security Council an acceptable basis for addressing the issue of the application of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for admission to the United Nations.
My Government considers the three main elements of this resolution, namely the settlement of the difference over the name of the applicant state, the adoption of appropriate confidence-building measures and the procedure for admitting the new state to the United Nations under a provisional name, an integral and indivisible package which alone can resolve the outstanding differences between Greece and the new Republic.
Indeed, the ultimate objective of the matter is the normalization of the relations between Greece and the FYROM. Only if this objective is reached, can peace and stability in our region be assured. Our position regarding the causes of these differences and the means to address and permanently eradicate them are included in the memorandum which we submitted to the Secretary-General on 25 January 1993.
One thing must be clear at the very outset. Together with the resolution of the issue of the name, Greece attaches the highest importance to the adoption and implementation of a set of appropriate confidence-building measures by the new state vis-à-vis Greece. Such measures were already included in the so-called Pinheiro Package which was put together by the Portuguese Presidency of the European Community in the spring of 1992. The CBMs must aim at securing, inter alia:
-Legal and political guarantees that the new state harbours no territorial claims against Greece (which should include amendments of certain provisions of the 1991 Constitution of the FYROM, as references to the "protection" of non-existing minorities in the neighbouring countries of this new Republic), and guarantees of the existing borders by both sides.
- The cessation of all hostile propaganda, particularly acts which could provoke public opinion and impede efforts towards establishing good neighbourly relations.
- The termination of the use of Greek symbols - such as the Sun of Vergina - as symbols of the new Republic. This is of paramount importance to the Greek people.
Finally, since one of the issues for the confidence-building measures is the guest ion of the flag, I should like to underline - as I have done in verbal communications to your distinguished predecessors - that the hoisting and flying at the United Nations of the flag bearing the Sun of Vergina would result in great damage to the efforts undertaken by the Co-chairmen of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia and render more difficult, if not defeat, a solution.
I should be grateful to you, Mr. President, if you would bring the serious concerns of my Government to the attention of the Secretary-General so that the problems that might be created by the hoisting of the flag be avoided.
(Signed) Michael PAPACONSTANTINOU Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece