Macedonia-Greece Talks to Focus on Trust-Building

Kotzias's one-day visit to Macedonia on Thursday will be dedicated solely to expanding the trust-building measures between the two neighbouring countries, an informed source from the Macedonian Foreign Ministry told BIRN.

Any talks on the long-standing name dispute which has been preventing Macedonia from joining NATO and the start of its EU accession talks will have to wait until after the local elections in Macedonia in mid-October, the source said.

Instead, Kotzias's visit to Skopje, which comes after his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Dimitrov went on a diplomatic ice-breaking mission to Athens in June, will focus on improving cooperation in the spheres of economy, transport, infrastructure and energy.

Ahead of the talks, Greek media have cited unnamed sources in the Greek Foreign Ministry as saying that Athens would also use the visit to "feel the pulse" of Macedonia's new government which was elected in May, and which pledged to make much more sincere efforts to solve the name dispute.

Kotzias could raise recent incidents which prompted Athens to doubt Skopje's declared change in policy.

In early August, the European Handball Federation, EHF, excluded the Greek women's handball team from its championship held in Skopje after Greece refused to play Macedonia's team because some of its officials were wearing clothing with the name 'Macedonia' displayed.

On August 16, the Greek Foreign Ministry protested once again after the Macedonian consul-general in Toronto, Jovica Palacevski, who was appointed by the previous administration, participated in an event at which a so-called "map of ethnic Macedonia" was displayed, which included the northern Greek province of Macedonia.

In his response,...