Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kodzias, a day before the Tsipras’ visit to Berlin, had a three-hour long meeting with his German counterpart Frank Walter Steinmeier in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on which they also discussed the name dispute.
According to information in Greece, the focus of discussion was the current political instability in the country and views on the name negotiations. The newspaper “To Vima” says that Berlin continues to show great interest in the Western Balkans and would like to have a leading role in the progress and improvement of the economic relations of the Balkan countries with the EU.
The newspaper notes that Germany considers that Western Balkans is currently not moving faster towards EU integration, and that the Balkan economic cooperation with the EU should be improved. “Berlin is also interested in regional stability. Because of this, it wishes peaceful situation in FYROM, where conflict between the government and the opposition goes out of control,” reports “To Vima”.
As for the aspect of intensive cooperation between the two countries, Berlin was informed of Greek ideas for confidence building measures for which Kodzias announced in Athens that they would be submitted to the Macedonian side in April in order to start talks on their development and implementation.
According to the newspaper “Kathimerini”, it is uncertain whether the confidence building measures would be successful, which, as Kodzias announced, would mainly be “to cope with irredentism” of Macedonian side, which, according to him, is a key problem that creates walls between both sides.
“Do you think that Gruevski would give up on the existence of “Macedonian minority” in Greece or that he would remove the monument of Alexander of Macedonia for some confidence building measures? It would be good if this happens, but it is unlikely that he would like to commit political suicide,” comments journalist Stavros Dzimas on the analysis of “Kathimerini”.
