U.S., Greece Agree to Settle Bases Issue Before ’88

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, unable to obtain assurances that U.S. military bases will be allowed to remain in Greece after 1988, announced Thursday an agreement with the Athens government to begin “serious discussions” to resolve the issue well before the current lease expires.

Although the agreement, reached during almost three hours of talks with Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, appeared to be less than the Reagan Administration had sought, Shultz pronounced it “quite satisfactory.”

“I believe there has been a real turn for the better” in U.S.-Greek relations, Shultz said at a press conference.

With Papandreou at his side, Shultz said their talks did not resolve the bases issue but that “we did agree that serious discussions of the question would take place in time to permit the early resolution of the question well prior to December, 1988,” when the current pact expires.

‘No Yes or No’

Papandreou later told U.S. reporters, “As you heard Secretary Shultz, we will have discussions on the bases.” When asked if he could say whether the leases will be extended, he said “there is no yes or no” answer yet.

When reporters pressed the issue, Papandreou said, “I can say in a few words. . . .” At that point, Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias whispered in his ear, and the prime minister continued, “I don’t think I should go beyond that. . . .”

Papandreou said that Cabinet will devote its entire meeting today to the subject.

At his press conference, Shultz refused to say when the bases negotiations will start, when they are expected to be completed or what their scope will be. To each request for elaboration, he replied by rereading his statement.

Decidedly Upbeat

But the tone of the press conference was decidedly upbeat. Shultz sought to smooth over a series of irritants that have marred Washington-Athens relations in recent years.

The secretary, who in the past had sharply criticized Greece’s reluctance to condemn international terrorism, said he was encouraged by Papandreou’s comments on the subject during their talks Thursday. He declined to be specific.

And, with a single word, he repaired what one Greek diplomat had called the symbol of U.S.-Greek tensions--a State Department advisory issued last summer that tourist travel to this Mediterranean country was unsafe. When a Greek reporter asked if he considered the country to be a safe place for American visitors, Shultz replied, “Yes.”

When the current five-year bases agreement was signed in 1983, Papandreou said that Greece would allow it to expire in 1988, when he would require the removal of all U.S. military facilities. Since then, however, his comments on the issue have been considerably less explicit, and other Greek officials have said that the Athens government is willing to discuss a new bases agreement.

Shultz told reporters at the start of his current trip that the Administration is in no hurry to settle the terms of an extension of the leases but wanted to find out soon if the bases would be permitted to remain at all. “If the bases are to be abandoned . . . we obviously don’t want to put a lot of money into them,” he said then.

‘Need to Be Operational’

However, on Thursday, Shultz relented on the point of investment in base facilities. “Of course, we’ll be here through the term of the present agreement,” he said. “The bases need to be operational. We have responsibilities . . . that will undoubtedly involve some expenditures.”

Papandreou, a former naturalized American citizen who once taught economics at UC Berkeley but who has made criticism of the United States a political trademark, described his meetings with Shultz as “very warm talks.”