There is also, I am very pleased to say, reason to think that the U.N. may succeed in 1991 where it failed in previous years. My optimism is based on four considerations. First, the Government of Cyprus says it wants a solution, and the President of the Republic of Cyprus, President Vassiliou, says he is prepared to work earnestly toward this goal. I believe him. I have worked with him, and I know he sincerely wants to carry out what he has said.

Second, the Government of Turkey and the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Mr. Denktash, who is now in Washington and has been here for several days, have been working directly and quietly in recent months with the U.N. Secretary General on key parts of the draft outline. They have done so voluntarily and with great seriousness.

Third, the Secretary General, in these, his last 8 months in office, is determined to do what he can to resolve a problem with which he has been personally associated since the mid-1970's. As you know, he was in Cyprus in the late 1970's for 2 or 3 years as the Secretary General's special representative, and he has personally been associated with Cyprus for more than a decade and a half.

Finally, the U.S. administration, from the President and the Secretary on down to me, is determined to act as a catalyst and become more directly involved in the substantive issues. As a means of supporting the Secretary General and the parties themselves, we have been more active. We intend to be more active.

That means that without taking specific positions we are prepared to assist the parties in reaching understandings on the issues that have long prevented agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities-the issue of territory, the issue of constitution, the question of displaced persons or refugees, the question of personal property, and the question of security and a guarantee system.

Our hope is that the U.N. draft outline can be completed before midyear 1991, and that the outline can be blessed with a meeting of the U.N. Secretary General, Mr. Denktash and Mr. Vassiliou in New York in June or July of this year. This document, of course, will not bring about a Cyprus settlement, but merely begin a long, complicated negotiation over, among other things, a new constitution and a treaty of guarantee.

The new partnership will not begin at once. It is for this reason that the United States has been pushing what I have come to call a second track, a second series of measures, a package of interim steps designed to take effect even before the outline is completed, assuming it may not be done by June or July 1991, or between the time the outline is signed and the documents bringing it into effect can be drafted.

All of the parties-that means the Government of Turkey, the Government of Cyprus, and the Turkish Cypriot community, have agreed to discuss a package of such measures which include military confidence-building, freer movement between the two parts of Cyprus, property registration, territorial modifications, and some degree of new economic cooperation between the two communities. A third area of activity that we are involved in is in connection with our yearly aid program. That represents a sizable $15 million

to Cyprus, and we have sought to promote projects in this area that are strictly bicommunal in nature, and which can help bring the two communities closer together.

We have now projects in education, in health care, in urban planning, and environmental subjects. We have told both communities that next year all of our projects must be bicommunal in character, from the planning to the implementation stage.

I would have to say that both the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot communities have grumbled to me, sometimes very loudly, each preferring to run projects as they have over the last 17 years. However, we intend to persevere, in the belief that our assistance must help start a process of cooperation and not foster the kind of separation that has grown ever more pronounced since 1974.

These are the three areas of activities: support for the U.N., support for a series of interim measures, and support for confidencebuilding measures on the ground through our aid projects. These are the three elements of our current policy toward Cyprus.

I want to conclude by assuring this committee that we intend to be active, more active than we have been in the past, and more persistent. We are ready to explore every area and to work with all who wish to work with us in helping the people of Cyprus end the long nightmare of their division and reach agreement on a new federal republic for their island.

That is the end of my statement, Senator Biden, but I would be very pleased to take questions.

[The prepared statement of Ambassador Ledsky follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF AMBASSADOR NELSON C. LEDSKY

Let me begin by thanking you for the opportunity to report on my activities over the past year as the U.S. Special Coordinator for Cyprus. It was exactly 12 months ago that I appeared before you for my confirmation hearings. I said then that I would welcome a chance to consult with this committee on a continuing basis as I went about my work. I have informally done just that with staff members and individual Senators, but this is my first chance to come before you formally to talk about administration policy toward Cyprus.

Mr. Chairman, I want to start by congratulating you and others on the committee for scheduling these hearings at this juncture. Your timing is excellent. I'm certain that one motivation is frustration over the lack of progress toward a Cyprus settlement these many years. But I sense also a recognition on your part that the present international climate is one that offers new and perhaps unique opportunities for solving this stubborn, complicated issue.

I want to say at the start that I share your frustration that we've not been able to accomplish more. I also continue to be optimistic and to see in the present circumstances some real chance for reaching in 1991 at least the first plateau toward a Cyprus settlement.

In my Judgment, there is no simple or single key to a Cyprus solution. Sloganeering won't help. No magic formula exists. That is why the United States has been working and will continue to work on three different fronts simultaneously. Let me explain each one.

First-and most basic-is support for the U.N. Secretary General's "good offices" mission. This mission was established, endorsed, and reendorsed on countless occasions by the U.N. Security Council. The Secretary General has been trying for some years now to put together with the two ethnic communities on Cyprus a detailed outline of how a new federation for the island might work. The various pieces of the outline have come close to being assembled on many occasions, but the process has not yet been completed, because-to put it simply-neither of the participants has been willing to make the necessary concessions for a new partnership to be established on the island. I'd be pleased to elaborate on this point in response to questions, but a recent article by Mr. Nimetz superbly outlines, in my view, the specific

areas where the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots need to make specific compromises. I hope Mr. Nimetz will review these points for you in his comments here this afternoon.

There is also, I'm pleased to say, reason to think that the U.N. may succeed in 1991 where it had failed in previous years. My optimism is based on four considerations. First, the Government of Cyprus says it wants a solution, and its president, President Vassiliou, says he is prepared to work earnestly toward this goal. I believe him. Second, the Government of Turkey and the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Mr. Denktash-who is now in Washington-have been working directly and quietly in recent months with the U.N. Secretary General on key parts of the draft outline. They have done so voluntarily and with great seriousness. Third, the Secretary General, in these his last 8 months in office, is determined to do what he can to resolve a problem with which he has been personally associated since the mid1970's. Finally, the U.S. administration, from the President and the Secretary of State on down to me, is determined to act as a catalyst and become more directly involved in the substance of issues as a means of supporting the Secretary General and the parties themselves. That means that, without taking specific positions ourselves, we are prepared to assist the parties in reaching understandings on the issues that have long prevented agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities-territory, constitutional issues, displaced persons, property, and a guarantee system.

Our hope is that the U.N. draft outline can be completed before midyear and that the outline itself can be blessed with a meeting of the U.N. Secretary General, Mr. Denktash, and Mr. Vassiliou in New York in June or July.

This document, of course, will not bring about a Cyprus settlement, but merely begin a long, complicated negotiation over, among other things, a new constitution and a treaty of guarantee. The new partnership will not begin at once. For this reason, we in the United States have been pushing a second series of measures, a package of interim steps, designed to take effect even before the outline is completed or between the time it is signed and the documents bringing it into effect can be drafted. All the parties have agreed to discuss a package of such measures which include topics such as military confidence-building measures, freer movement between the two parts of Cyprus, property registration, territorial modifications, and economic cooperation.

Third, the United States in conjunction with its still sizable $15 million yearly aid program in Cyprus has sought to promote projects that are bicommunal in nature, and which can help bring the two communities closer together. These are projects in education, in health care, in urban planning, and in the environment. We have told both communities that next year all our projects must be bicommunal in character-from the planning to the implementation. Both sides have grumbled, preferring to run communal projects as they have for the last 17 years. However, we intended to persevere in the belief that our assistance must help start a process of cooperation-and not foster the kind of separation that has grown even more pronounced since 1974.

Mr. Chairman, I've tried to sketch out for you briefly the three elements of current U.S. policy toward Cyprus. I want to conclude by assuring this committee that we intend to be active-more active than we have been in the past-and more persistent. We are ready to explore every avenue and to work with all who wish to work with us in helping the people of Cyprus end the long nightmare of their division and reach agreement on a new federal republic for their island.

Senator BIDEN. Thank you.

Tell me a little bit about, if you are able to with some degree of specificity, these confidence-building measures that are intended to flow from the aid.

Mr. LEDSKY. Well, we have put forward-and I put forward in December of 1989 a series of 10 ideas. Not all of them will get off the ground. Maybe only one or two will get off the ground, but let me give you some examples.

We have talked again, as we have talked since the time of President Kennedy, of an English-speaking bicommunal university on the Island of Cyprus, and we have talked both to the Republic of Cyprus and to the Turkish Cypriot community about working together to establish, under American auspices, such a university.

We have talked together about building a joint library service for the island.

Senator BIDEN. Let me stop you there. Purely coincidentally, under very sad circumstance, I saw Senator Percy at Senator Heinz' funeral.

Senator Percy indicated to me that he—and I do not want to misquote him. He believed that he was able to raise a significant amount of money to put such a university in place and actually prepared to put together a very distinguished board that would take a keen interest in such a university, and got absolutely no interest from the Turkish Cypriots. Is that right or wrong? Maybe I am misstating it, but that is my recollection.

Mr. LEDSKY. No, I am not aware of this particular circumstance, but I think it is true that we have, over the past 11⁄2 years, not had much support for this idea either from the Turkish Cypriot community or the Government of Cyprus. The Government of Cyprus is in the process of establishing a Greek-language university on the island. The Turkish Cypriot community has established a small, English-speaking college in the northern part of Cyprus which has attracted primarily students from the Arab world, not Turkish students or Cypriot students.

Both communities have told me, and they have told our AID people and they have told others who have come out to the island, that this is a noble idea, one that could help build a sense of community on the island, but that each, for political reasons, must proceed with its own university at the present time, and that we should come back later, come back soon, come back a year or two from now with this idea again.

Last year, former Congressman Brademos went out to Cyprus. He had in his portfolio the idea of building, with New York University, some kind of graduate school for business. New York University was involved in such an enterprise in Hungary-I believe it is involved in such an enterprise in Hungary-and he expressed interest in doing that or something similar in Cyprus. He did not receive great encouragement on the island.

This is just another one of many ideas we are pushing forward, but we are insisting, and we are going to insist, that beginning in 1991, our $15 million annual appropriation is going to be spent only on projects where the two communities actually work together in the planning, implementation of projects. We want them actually in contact with one another, and actually doing something which in the long run can bring the two communities together.

We have got a library project working its way through the bureaucracies of both sides at the present moment. We set up, with the assistance of a Greek Cypriot doctor and a Turkish Cypriot doctor, a multiple sclerosis hospital and research center on the island, which has gotten some of our 1990 money and which will get some of our 1991 money.

We have, in sum, a vast series of ideas, but I have had great difficulty in pushing them.

Senator BIDEN. That is right. I do not for a moment doubt your commitment, but I wondered why you, when I asked you to give me an example, you give me the example of the university idea, an English-speaking university, and then point out what I thought

would be the case, that in fact it has gone nowhere, and there is no reason to think it will go anywhere, and nothing has happened on it, and yet it is cited as one of the several ideas you have for confidence-building.

Again, what I am trying to get a sense of, is not what our hopes are, but what we might reasonably expect to happen. That is why I asked the question.

Mr. LEDSKY. OK. I think it is a very good question. I guess I put the university first and I continue to put it first on my list for a couple of reasons:

First, it has been mentioned repeatedly by the U.N. and has been included, and was included, in the 1989 outline which the Secretary General worked on.

Second, it has been an idea which has been associated with the U.S. Senate for more than a decade.

Third, it is an idea which in principle each of the communities from time to time has endorsed, and which I believe we should continue to push for its intrinsic importance. I mean, nothing can be more important than breaking down the language barriers and the educational barriers which have developed and are developing on the island.

Senator BIDEN. Well, I see it as an example of the futility of the present policy. I mean that sincerely. I see it as-if the notion of establishing an English-speaking university cannot get not only to first base, but cannot get out of the dugout with the U.N., the U.S. Senate, the administration, everyone speaking to it and it being as benign as it is, it seems to me that it is evidence of the fact that much stronger medicine has to be applied, which leads me to my next question: What portion of the Cypriot Government's budget is $15 million? In the State of New York, it does not mean anything. I am not being facetious. A $15 million grant from the Federal Government to the City of New York to help in their drug problem is of almost no consequence. It is almost not worth the paperwork. $15 million in the State of Delaware-with a significantly smaller budget has some impact. What are we talking about?

Mr. LEDSKY. I do not know what the budget of the Republic of Cyprus is offhand, but let me just say, if you divide $15 million by the population of Cyprus, the $15 million is a sizable amount of aid. It is more than $15 for every man, woman, and child on the island, every year. And we have been giving this aid since 1974.

Senator BIDEN. Again, I am just trying to get a perspective. I am not attempting to belittle it. I just truly am trying to get a

sense

Mr. LEDSKY. I think it is a sizable amount in terms of the population and in terms of the economic status of the island. I do not know what it represents in terms of the island's budget.

Senator BIDEN. Now, Secretary Baker did something that, as I said in my opening statement, I guess it depends on whether or not you are an optimist or a pessimist, how you view it. He met with Mr. Denktash. Now, the bad news from my perspective is that seems to it could be read by some, maybe by Mr. Denktash, as a recognition of-not formal, but an upscaling of the attitude of the United States toward the illegally arranged, I guess is the better phrase, Turkish Cypriot government.