US Urges Will, Flexibility, for FYROM Name Solution

Washington, D.C. (ANA-MPA/T. Ellis) — US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday urged Athens and Skopje to manifest will and flexibility in order to resolve the FYROM name issue as soon as possible, so as to enable FYROM to join NATO.

Speaking to reporters after the signing of a Joint Declaration of Partnership and Strategic Cooperation between the US and FYROM with FYROM foreign minister Antonio Milososki at the State Department, Rice said the agreement was important as it constituted a framework for cooperation between the two countries containing “a number of elements that we will develop”, including economic and trade ties.

She also said that, in the framework of that cooperation, “we will look at security issues that ‘Macedonia’ may wish to train its forces for counterterrorism and the like”.

Rice spoke of cooperation and friendship between the two peoples, and reiterated that the US “strongly supports” FYROM’s accession to NATO “as soon as the name dispute can be reconciled”, adding that “we hope that that will happen very, very soon, because ‘Macedonia’ deserves to be a member of NATO”.

To a question by a FYROM reporter on whether she saw a chance for compromise between Greece and FYROM, Rice first of all noted that both countries were a “good friend” of the US.

“And it is our great hope that with enough will and enough effort and enough flexibility, that this issue can be resolved. Because NATO – during the NATO meetings in Bucharest, it was very clear that that the members of NATO want Macedonia to be invited into NATO and that we hope to have that happen as soon as possible,” she said.

“We are encouraging Ambassador Nimetz (UN special mediator on the FYROM name issue) to redouble his efforts. We are encouraging Greece and ‘Macedonia’ to work hard at this. Nothing could be better than to get it resolved because ‘Macedonia’ very much deserves the invitation that it was unable to receive at (the recent NATO summit in) Bucharest,” Rice added.

Athens remained laconic on Thursday when again asked about the latest round of comments by high-ranking US diplomats concerning the still unresolved FYROM “name issue”.

When queried during a regular press briefing in Athens, alternate government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros merely noted that “Greece is participating in a productive manner, and with the intent to reach a result within the process underway under the United Nations’ auspices.”

BAKOYIANNIS
Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, speaking in an interview with the Austrian newspaper “Tiroler Tageszeitung” on Friday, said, referring to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s (FYROM) name issue, that “one country alone cannot have the monopoly of a name that characterises the entire region. In any case, this would not contribute in any way to the stability of the region, nor would it fulfill the preconditions of the European Union and of NATO for good neighbourly relations.”

Bakoyannis referred to the fact that the term “Macedonia” always characterised a geographical region, about 51 percent of which currently lies in Greece, 38 percent in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and 9 percent in Bulgaria.

The Greek foreign minister further said that on the issue of FYROM’s name, Greece has now covered half the way for the finding of a compromise. A mutually acceptable solution will pave the way for the neighbouring country’s goals in relation to NATO and the European Union. At the same time, it will show FYROM’s willingness to normalise its relations with Greece, as a neighbour, an important trade partner and a future ally.

Also replying to a relevant question, Bakoyannis said that Greece is a convinced supporter of Turkey’s European prospects and desires to see a European and democratic Turkey, since the two peoples are destined to live together.