Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias on Monday afternoon, hours after a telephone conversation between Alexis Tsipras and Zoran Zaev, said the looming prospect of a solution to the "name issue" is in Greece's best interests, while referring to a mutually beneficial agreement between the country and its northern neighbor, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM).
"Why would the other side agree with us if it doesn't also receive its benefits?" he asked, noting that only three "names" have remained on the table of negotiations, and that the Skopje government has made its choice.
Kotzias also said the draft agreement includes a reference to the name of the dominant language in the neighboring country, and also identifies the ethnicity of the citizens in fYRoM "with Slavic roots".
He spoke to a local television station in the Athens area.
Although obscure by international standards, the "name issue" separating Athens and Skopje since the early 1990s has prevented a full normalization of relations between the two neighbors, with the one-time Yugoslav constituent state's prospective membership in Euro-Atlantic institutions blocked by Athens' opposition.
Greece objects to the stand-alone name "Macedonia", as in "Republic of Macedonia", for the neighboring country, given that Macedonia is name of Greece's largest province and the area bordering with fYRoM. Athens has also objected to what it calls a past irredentist agenda in the use of the name "Macedonia" by fYRoM.
