Zaev-Nimetz: Right moment for mutually acceptable, dignified solution to name dispute

The Skopje-Athens name talks under the auspice of the United Nations and Ambassador Nimetz will resume, but from this moment on the foreign ministers will lead the negotiating teams of both countries, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said Thursday at a meeting with UN mediator Matthew Nimetz.

Nimetz on his part presented his ideas, opinions on the course of the name negotiations, while Zaev briefed the UN mediator about the outcome of the coordination meeting of Macedonia’s political stakeholders, the government said in a press release.

Zaev-Nimitz meeting highlighted the benefit of the recent talks of the Macedonian and Greek Prime Ministers in Davos, when both parties expressed political will to make the initial concrete steps towards settling the name dispute, namely the announcements for renaming the highway in Macedonia and for Greece’s Parliament to ratify the second phase of Skopje-EU stabilization and association agreement, as well as for Athens to support Macedonia’s bid to join the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative.

The two agreed that ‘now is the right time for settling the dispute’, which has been a subject of discussion for 25 years. To that effect they underlined the need of pragmatic approach and a solution that ‘will set basis for long-standing, stable bilateral relations’, the press release reads.