Athens, 07/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - EU Council President George Papandreou, who briefed European Council President Costas Simitis on the meetings with Colin Powell in Brussels, stressed "we must now discuss in a clear way, in an open way with the United States and clarify as equal parties, with mutual respect, international reality, the role of the UN and the issues of weapons of mass destruction, as well as the major issues of humanity, such as poverty, inequality and the environment". According to the ANA press agency, the Greek Foreign Minister noted that "we must even examine special issues such as that of the doctrine of pre-emptive strikes, issues which have created great scepticism among Europeans". The Greek Presidency will present these positions to the United States during the Summit on 25 June in Washington with President Bush, he announced.
Greek Defence Minster Yiannos Papantoniou declared during his visit to the United States last week, still according to ANA, that he had discussed with his interlocutors (notably Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice) about the need to establish an international framework of rules on order to deal with serious crises.