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To: Jim McMannis who wrote (32972)	5/1/1999 11:15:00 AM
From: Gord Bolton	Respond to of 116764

No tangible progress on Balkan peace, but Axworthy hopeful Saturday, 1 May 1999 MOSCOW (CP) FOREIGN AFFAIRS Minister Lloyd Axworthy ended two days of talks Friday with little tangible progress to show for it, but saying he is confident that diplomacy will resolve the conflict in Yugoslavia. "There is a strong feeling that the diplomatic action now underway has momentum to it," he said before leaving Moscow for Athens. "Discussions are going into the stage of implementation and starting to put goals on the table". Axworthy held two hours of meetings with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, to go over Russia's plan for mediating a settlement of the five week-old conflict over Kosovo. "We share certain principles and now there is the political will to bridge the gaps," Ivanov said after the talks. But the Russian foreign minister reiterated concerns that NATO is in violation of international law because it did not seek United Nations approval for its five-week campaign of air strikes to force Yugoslavia to accept a Western-sponsored peace plan for Kosovo. "The UN must play a central role," Ivanov said. "The situation is now extremely complex and difficult, but political means are the only way to resolve it." On Thursday Axworthy took part in a four-way dialogue with Ivanov, the Greek foreign minister and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. But despite a week of frenetic diplomatic activity, which has seen a virtual revolving door for NATO officials in the Kremlin and a burst of shuttle diplomacy by Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, the outlines of a negotiated solution to the war remain uncertain. "People are not going around in circles. There is a direction and a purpose to it," Axworthy said. He said the idea of intensifying the pressure on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic by launching a ground offensive was virtually ruled out at last weekend's NATO summit in Washington. Russia's involvement in the process is the key, he said, since Moscow maintains good relations and is able to work constructively with both sides. He said that Russia and NATO agree the war should end with a full Serbian troop withdrawal from the troubled province of Kosovo and a halt in NATO's bombing campaign. But they disagree on the makeup and role of the international force that would come in to help Kosovar refugees return home and to keep the peace. Russia, reflecting Yugoslav concerns, wants an unarmed force consisting of monitors from non-NATO countries, such as Russia and India. The West wants an armed force with a core of troops from NATO members. Axworthy said he spent a lot of time discussing various peacekeeping options with Ivanov Friday. "But I can't say there was any agreement on a preferred option." Arriving in Athens Friday night, Axworthy said Greece has a special position in the diplomatic effort as it understands both the needs of the region and the political tensions created by the crisis. The Greeks have become "very strong advocates for finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict, which at this time is a very strategic and needed role," the minister said in an interview. Despite overtures toward peace, Canada tightened sanctions against Yugoslavia. Axworthy announced that additional sanctions will require permit for all exports to Yugoslavia from Canada. He reiterated, in a press release from Ottawa, that Canada wants the campaign of terror against ethnic Albanians stopped, the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo, the establishment of an international military presence and the safe return of Kosovar refugees. "The controls announced today will help us to achieve these ends by denying any and all Canadian goods to the Yugoslav war machine." One positive result of Axworthy's trip to Moscow may have been to strengthen NATO's frayed bonds with Russia, where opposition to bombing of Yugoslavia has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks. "I think there is a real need to work actively to repair the NATO-Russian relationship," he said. "If we're back on track it's because there's an understanding that Russia is a crucial player and if you're going to make constructive things happen it's got to be with them."