On June 24 2008, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice met Greek foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis in Berlin on the occasion of an international donors conference for the Palestinian police and judiciary, using the opportunity to discuss the ongoing name dispute between Greece and Macedonia, website Balkan Insight reported.
Rice was expected to put pressure on her Greek colleague to come to terms with the Macedonians. However, Bakoyannis stressed the issue's complexity and the two agreed it could not be resolved before July 9, the date when Albania and Croatia will sign their accession protocols with Nato, Greek newspaper Eleftheros Typos quoted its sources as saying, as reported by Balkan Insight.
The meeting came only days before Matthew Nimetz, United Nations special envoy on the name issue, embarks on a new visit to the two countries at the end of the week as part of his efforts to reach a solution to the dispute that has been poisoning relations between the two Balkan neighbours for 17 years now.
On June 26, Nimetz will meet Bakoyannis in Athens and the following day he will hold talks with Macedonian president Branko Crvenkoski and prime minister Nikola Gruevski in Skopje.
Macedonia and Greece have been at odds over the name of the former since it broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991. The Greeks claim it has no right to call itself Macedonia as this could be indicative of its implicit territorial claims over a northern Greek province, also called Macedonia.
In spite of UN's constant efforts over the years, the dispute still remains unsettled. It even led to Greece vetoing Macedonia's invitation to join Nato at the alliance's April 2008 summit in Bucharest.
Talks between the two countries have recently intensified as July 9 approaches. The date is widely seen as the last train Macedonia can catch if it is to join Nato it together with the other two Western Balkan states. Earlier in June, a round of negotiations was held in New York.
In an interview Macedonian prime minister gave to Macedonian Information Agency earlier this week, he accused the Greeks of trying to postpone the settling of the issue.
“What we've got now are not negotiations, particularly the last round in New York. This is an attempt for unilateral dictate, accompanied with insults and threats. There is no fight with arguments, but demonstration of power. The Greek negotiator, in the utmost arrogant manner, points out what may be possible and not possible, which are not negotiations. And he always seeks a way to postpone the settlement,” Gruevski said.
