The foreign minister of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM), Nikola Dimitrov, on Tuesday said a planned meeting with his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias next month, in the presence of UN special mediator Matthew Nimetz, will be of an “exploratory nature”.
Athens and the one-time Yugoslav republic to Greece’s immediate north have been locked in a decades-old dispute over the name “Macedonia”, with the official Greek side viewing the latter’s constitutional name as encroaching on Greece’s biggest province, Macedonia.
Dimitrov told local media that Nimetz, a long-time mediator in the dispute, may exploit the fact that the meeting will be the first to broach the “name issue” after a lengthy hiatus, whereby a discussion may take place on a future process for a resolution.
According to initial reports, the Greek and fYRoM FMs will meet in Brussels on Dec. 11 and 12.
