Financial Times

Balkan summit meeting urged. By KERIN HOPE, ATHENS. 11 Jun 1997

Greece and Russia yesterday called for a Balkan summit meeting to promote political stability and cross-border investment in the region. The proposal was made at a meeting of seven Balkan foreign ministers in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, which aims to become the region's business centre.

The initiative, announced by Russia's deputy foreign minister, Mr Nikolay Afanassievsky, and the Greek foreign minister, Mr Theodoros Pangalos, would give Russia a formal role in Balkan affairs for the first time.

But officials said the test of Russia's commitment to the region would be its willingness to guarantee oil supplies for the planned trans-Balkan pipeline. Greece and Bulgaria have reached an accord on building a Dollars 700m (Pounds 428m) pipeline to carry Caspian oil from Bulgaria's Black Sea port of Burgas to Alexandroupolis on the Aegean, but the project is being held up by uncertainty over Russian participation.