Macedonia faced with historic opportunity to close name issue, says Osmani

This year sees a historic chance to settle differences involving the use of the name of Macedonia and as politicians, who have won the trust to represent their citizens, we have a responsibility to demonstrate maturity and not to miss this chance.

This was stated by Bujar Osmani, Deputy PM for European affairs, in Athens on Tuesday where he has met with Greece’s Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs George Katrougalos, MIA reports from the Greek capital.

Macedonia, Osmani said, has been demonstrating clear optimism to close this issue. “I hope this issue will be finally settled given the positive signals being relayed from Greece as well.”

Talks amongst other things also focused on mutual cooperation, ways to improve communication and on the confidence-building measures, MIA’s correspondent reports.

“An exceptional breakthrough has been made by the two countries in communication, which obviously leads not only to boosting confidence between them, but also to boosting confidence between the two societies in general,” Deputy PM Osmani said noting that open issues could be only solved in a sincere climate of trust.

According to him, it is necessary the two countries to advance their cooperation in order to pave the way for prosperity, progress and well-being of the citizens.

Osmani said in the coming period he expected the confidence-building measures to be heightened in all areas, including economy, culture, education, environment, cross-border cooperation, energy, transport, etc.

Moreover, the interlocutors discussed issues with respect to European challenges, such as the likelihood of a new migrant crisis, the functioning of the EU and consequences from Brexit, EU’s enlargement, the integration of Western Balkan countries, etc.