The troubled state of relations between Greece and Turkey and Athens’s dispute with Skopje about the use of the name Macedonia were among issues to be discussed by Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen with Greek prime minister Costas Karamanlis on August 27 2009.

Also on the agenda were Greece’s involvement in Nato-led operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

The dispute over the use of the name Macedonia, an issue that dates from the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, has led Athens to block Macedonia’s aspirations to Nato membership.

Rasmussen was in Athens before a scheduled trip to Ankara, with which Greece is locked in a dispute about incursions by Turkish air force jets into airspace claimed by Greece.

This is one of a number of bilateral disputes Greece has with Turkey, others being Cyprus and Greece’s allegations against Turkey that Ankara does too little to stem illegal immigration into Europe.

Greek daily Kathimerini said that Rasmussen had expressed his frustration with the negative repercussions of Greek-Turkish friction on Nato operations involving both alliance members.
 
A day before Rasmussen’s arrival in Athens, a spokesperson for the Greek foreign ministry said that a meeting between Rasmussen and foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis would see discussions on preparations for Nato’s new strategic doctrine, Nato’s operations and missions, especially in Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as efforts to confront piracy off Somalia.
 
Foreign ministry spokesperson Grigoris Delavekouras referred the "paradox" of one Nato member and EU hopeful, Turkey, not recognising a full EU member-state, namely, the Republic of Cyprus.
 
Speaking to journalists at Nato headquarters in Brussels before his departure, Rasmussen confirmed that he would be discussing ways to improve co-operation between Athens and Ankara.
 
"I know it is a bilateral issue between the two countries, but we have come to the point where it is causing us problems in our missions," Rasmussen said.
 
In Turkey, a significant aspect of his visit will be a conciliatory message to the Muslim world, which was irked by the 2006 controversy about cartoons in Danish newspapers lampooning the Muslim prophet Muhammed. Rasmussen, prime minister at the time, declined to move against the newspapers, and Turkey was angered further by Denmark hosting a pro-Kurdish rebel television station.
 
In April 2009, when Rasmussen was put forward as the new chief of Nato, Turkey objected, an obstacle that was squared away only after Turkey was promised senior military command posts and the post of Nato Deputy Secretary General.