Nikola Dimitrov

Despite the good will on display during Wednesday's meeting in Athens between Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and his counterpart from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Nikola Dimitrov, it was abundantly clear that there is still a long way to go before the decades-old dispute over the tiny Balkan nation's name is resolved.

Macedonia's new Foreign Minister, Nikola Dimitrov, has paid a first to Athens, where he met his counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, in a warm atmosphere that some hope may pave the way to a solution of the long-standing dispute over Macedonia's name.

Greece objects to the name "Macedonia", claiming it implies a territorial aspiration to the Greek province of the same name.

Greece is promising the new government of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) closer ties but insists a decades-old name dispute should be resolved before it would back future membership of NATO and the European Union.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said on Tuesday, ahead of Wednesday's meeting in Athens with his counterpart in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), that he sees a willingness emanating from Skopje to reach a solution to the decades-old name dispute and to "finish with irredentism."

Macedonia's new government will work hard to convince the EU to revive accession talks by this autumn, and to address Greece's objections to the country's NATO accession, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told top EU and NATO officials in Brussels on Monday.

In its bid to join the NATO alliance, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is willing to consider provisional names so as to overcome Greek objections, the Financial Times reported on Monday. 

Zoran Zaev revealed the composition of his cabinet late Sunday, which parliament is expected to approved this week. Speaker of Parliament Talat Xhaferi has set the date for the session to start on Tuesday.

The key posts are to be shared between Zaev's Social Democratic Party, SDSM, and Macedonia's main ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.

Macedonian people should draw on Czechs and Slovaks' example if they can't get along and split into two countries, US congressman Dana Rohrabacher has said.

Haindl, who was appointed by Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is being deployed in a bid to help settle the political crisis in Macedonia, alongside the European Union and the United States, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.