Avramopoulos Hits N.Y. for UN Talks

Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos will be in New York City on Feb. 21  for a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The topics to be discussed during Avramopoulos’s talks include the negotiations on the FYROM name issue, the Cyprus issue, and issues concerning the stability and security of the wider region of Southeast Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa.

Matthew Nimetz, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the talks between Greece and the former Yugoslavia, is expected to hold further meetings with representatives of both countries in March.
The Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Cyprus Alexander Downer, also hopes in March to resume negotiations that have gone on for 39 years, as Cyprus has a run-off election on Feb. 24 to elect a new President.

Avramopoulos is scheduled to attend a luncheon with representatives of the Hellenic Initiative to discuss the attraction of investments to Greece and the strengthening of Greece’s international image. His other plans include meeting His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America to talk about Diaspora efforts to help vulnerable sectors of Greeks who have almost no government programs to help them during a crushing economic crisis.