The Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Matthew Nimetz, will meet later today in New York with Zoran Jolevski, Skopje’s negotiator for the “name issue”. They will discuss the positions of Mr. Jolevski’s Government, as well as next steps.
Yesterday, Mr. Nimetz met with the negotiator from the Greek side, Adamantios Vassilakis, and was presented with the approach and policies of the new Greek Government towards the “name issue”. Mr. Nimetz was told that there was a desire in Athens to settle this matter and to negotiate a lasting solution. He was also informed about the general parameters, in Greece’s view, of what an acceptable solution would involve.
UN Charter reminder – Article 1-2 extract:
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.
(Source: United Nations website)
Whether it is on purpose or not – nobody knows – China would cooperate with Skopje as far as the military is concerned. It is deemed that Beijing and Skopje could come to a cooperation agreement for the Macedonian army Nato membership has been procrastinated for years due to the Greek demand over Macedonian constitutional name. On the other hand, Albania and Croatia have become Nato members since April 2009, and the United Nations Organization will hold talks about Kosovo unilateral independence declaration.
The Greek government has demanded for almost two decades – 18 years – that Republic of Macedonia use be replaced by FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). Turkey recognizes the name of Republic of Macedonia, which adds fuel to the fire insofar as the dispute between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus has not been solved yet.
The phrase “Republic of Macedonia” has not been recognized by the United Nations. However Greece would agree about using the term Macedonia by FYROM provided that it be added to another term to point out a difference with the Greek region of Macedonia. All the recent events – not to mention China and Japan calm down; USA-China and USA-Japan bridge-building – could involve a solution to the row presently. To be continued…
