The meeting between Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kodzias and Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Besimi was interpreted by part of the Greek media as an opening of the Greek Government towards the Albanian factor.
Greek newspaper “Kathimerini” assessed that the meeting was an attempt to break the ice with the Macedonian government, but also to move towards cooperation with the Albanian factor.
According to the analysis of the daily, the meeting with Besimi is opening towards the Albanian factor not only in Macedonia, but to Albanians throughout the region. According to “Kathimerini”, such a step is considered positive in terms of improving the Greek-Albanian relations after the tension that was recently created between Athens and Tirana.
Apart from this element, “Kathimerini” notes that the talks between the two politicians were a clear attempt to create a better climate and a better understanding of the various bilateral issues, cross-border cooperation and cooperation on European programs. The analysis notes that while Kodzias originally introduced confidence-building measures as Greece’s way to combat Macedonian irredentism, that rhetoric was not used in statements after his meeting with Besimi.
“This way, confidence building measures develop as a bid for rational cooperation, pushing forward the European programs, while it seems that the name dispute would be put in a drawer, at least temporarily, because FYROM’s conditions are not favorable for dialogue, nor Athens is in a hurry, and lately, Gruevski’s isolation became frequent European policy,” reads the text of “Kathimerini”.
