Name talks on agenda again
United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz yesterday met separately with representatives from Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in New York to gauge their stances on the Macedonia name dispute before negotiations resume. Yesterday’s meetings aim to lay the groundwork for Nimetz’s planned visits to Athens and Skopje at the end of this month. It is hoped this latest initiative will kick-start negotiations which stalled in early April after Greece vetoed Skopje’s bid to join NATO and were put on the back burner as FYROM struggled with general elections. Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Robert Menendez has written a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking her to push for a speedy solution to the name dispute. Failure to clinch a settlement may obstruct the ratification of bilateral and multilateral pacts, Menendez said.
