The foreign ministry on Monday announced that UN mediator for the FYROM “name issue” Matthew Nimetz will meet with Greek leadership on Wednesday, including talks with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis.

“We hope the neighboring country (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia {FYROM}) will take all the steps necessary to allow for substantive progress and a final resolution to the outstanding issue in a mutually acceptable manner,” a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Speaking during a regular press briefing in the Greek capital, spokesman George Koumoutsakos was asked if Athens believes the neighboring country to its immediate north has met conditions for NATO accession, whereby he merely noted that a process of evaluation is underway.

“The road is long, however. There appear to be many things that still need to be done,” he said.

“Greece can and wants to help the neighboring country in its course towards NATO and the European Union, under the condition that a mutually acceptable solution (to the ‘name issue’) is found … and that statements and acts belying an irredentist reasoning are abandoned,” Koumoutsakos said, adding:

“There aren’t just European principles and values that must be applied by the neighboring country, especially in terms of good-neighborly relations; there is also a European approach in decision-making, an approach using consensus and convergence. This approach must be the model for the neighboring country.”

Finally, he responded to a question by clarifying that dropping the name “Alexander the Great” for Skopje’s airport - a provocative decision taken by the FYROM government last December - will not influence Greek policy, which he said, is focused on the substance of the matter - i.e. the “name issue”.

UN envoy Nimetz holds talks with FYROM’s leadershipUN Secretary-General's special envoy Matthew Nimetz, who is mediating in the dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) over the "name issue", said after his meeting with FYROM’s leadership on Monday that “we had in depth talks, I believe also constructive. I heard in detail the views of the leadership here and I conveyed to them my opinions on which points there are possibilities for a solution of the matter. I believe that there is interest for us to proceed forward with the matter and I hope that we will be able to intensify the discussions.”

To a question whether there was any progress on the issue, Nimetz replied, “the progress is that now we are more concentrated in the negotiating process and the examination of certain ideas.”

To another question whether he received new ideas and what he intends to convey in Athens, Nimetz answered, “there were quite a few thoughts in the meeting and I am satisfied by this. I cannot say whether I will be bringing something new. We had discussions in New York on November 1 where we spoke about some ideas and there is quite some thought about them.”

To a question whether this meeting constitutes a last round of efforts for the solution of the problem, Nimetz replied, “there is no final round of negotiations until there is an end to the matter which is a major matter. It is not an easy matter, but there is will for it to be solved. The government’s position here, which is also a national position, is well known, as Greece’s position is well known.”

Regarding the course of the negotiations, Nimetz stated, “we spoke about the negotiations and we will see where they lead. If there is a certain answer, it will be when we are ready to say when we will proceed to a next stage regarding them.”
FYROM’s negotiator at the United Nations on the name issue, Nikola Dimitrov, said that FYROM’s leadership told Nimetz which of his recommendations cannot be accepted and which other points are being assessed by the country as “positive and acceptable.”

Dimitrov noted that examined at the meeting were ways and ideas for the development of the negotiating process in which, as he said, FYROM will participate “actively and constructively” with the basic criterion the maintenance of “its national identity, which is contained in the constitutional name of the country.”

Nimetz is expected in Athens after the conclusion of his Skopje talks.

Source: Athens News Agency

^
top

print this page   send this page