Mitsotakis to meet with Zaev on Thursday
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to meet with North Macedonia’s Zoran Zaev on Thursday on the sidelines of the Thessaloniki Summit 2019, a business event organized by the Federation of Industries of Greece.
The official agenda of talks is unclear but the two men are expected to discuss the Prespes name deal signed with Greece’s previous government as well as North Macedonia’s stalled accession talks with the European Union.
Their first meeting was on September 24 in New York, on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting.
During talks last week Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias assured his North Macedonia counterpart Nikola Dimitrov that Greece wants to see the Balkan country join the EU while also underlining the need for the Prespes name deal to be honored to the letter.
On Sunday, Zaev hosted a "Western Balkan countries summit," in Ohrid, Northern Macedonia, in which leaders committed to a plan of free movement of people and goods among their countries but added that the mkain goal remains EU membership. “There is no sustainable alternative for this goal,” a joint press statement released after the meeting said.
[Kathimerini/AP]
