[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
[January 30, 1991]
[Page 80]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With Foreign 
Minister Antonios Samaras of Greece
January 30, 1991

    Q. When are you coming to Greece, Mr. President?
    The President. Well, let me say I'm looking forward to coming to 
Greece. And I want to tell the Foreign Minister that I'd like very much 
to have the Prime Minister come here, because we have a strong 
relationship with Greece. We're delighted with the cooperation we are 
receiving. I view it as a partnership.
    And I don't know exactly on timing because we've had to delay a trip 
that might well have tied into a stop in Greece. But I hope you will 
tell the Prime Minister that--one, of our gratitude for the wonderful 
cooperation in this partnership approach we've got; two, of our 
commitment to Greece, longstanding, and to its security and to its 
prosperity.
    And I guess, really, my message to the Greek people would be one of 
gratitude for its steadfast standing shoulder to shoulder with the 
United States and many other countries in standing up against the 
aggression that Saddam Hussein has perpetrated.
    So, Greek-American relations are in good shape. And what we're going 
to talk about is how to make them even better, if we can.
    Q. Mr. President, does your resolve for implementation of all U.N. 
resolutions include the Cyprus issue as well?
    The President. Well, we've been looking at that for a long, long 
time. Quite clearly, it's not something that the United States can do. 
We've long favored support for the Secretary-General's initiative.
    But that's the last question I'll take--a very good one and an issue 
that I hope can be resolved. We've got a full-time, a very able 
Ambassador who remains involved on it in multilateral--Mr. Ledsky. We 
have a good Ambassador in Athens who has our full confidence. So, I hope 
we can be helpful. But that's a problem that I'd love to see solved, in 
keeping with these U.N. resolutions.
    Thank you all very much.

                    Note: The exchange began at 10:05 a.m. in the Oval 
                        Office at the White House. In his remarks, 
                        President Bush referred to Prime Minister 
                        Constantinos Mitsotakis of Greece; President 
                        Saddam Hussein of Iraq; United Nations 
                        Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar de la 
                        Guerra; Nelson C. Ledsky, U.S. Special Cyprus 
                        Coordinator; and Michael Sotirhos, U.S. 
                        Ambassador to Greece.