US Moves to Revive Greece-Macedonia Talks

Philip Reeker

The UN mediator in the dispute, Matthew Nimetz, on Monday and Tuesday in New York is to meet separately with Greek and Macedonian negotiators after a year of stalled talks between the two sides.

The talks come one month after the International Court of Justice, ICJ, ruled that Greece had breached an interim deal, brokered by the UN in 1995, when it blocked Macedonia’s attempt to join NATO in 2008.

Although Reeker’s visit to Macedonia comes as part of a wider regional tour, his mission is in part connected with the UN "name" talks, a source at the US embassy in Skopje told Balkan Insight.

The source said Reeker will urge Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to get back to substantial talks on a solution to the long-standing problem.  The ICJ ruling, which Macedonia plans to use as a new argument in its favour, will also be discussed.

Athens and Skopje are locked in a two-decade long dispute over Macedonia's name. Citing the unresolved issue, Greece has blocked Macedonia’s progress towards both EU and NATO membership.

Greece insists that use of the term "Macedonia" by its neighbour implies a territorial claim to its own northern province of the same name.

“Reeker’s visit comes foremost in light of the re-activation of the name talks,” said Stevo Pendarovski, who served as advisor to former Macedonian presidents Boris Trajkovski and Branko Crvenkovski.
 
“His messages to the Prime Minister [Gruevski] will be that Macedonia should enter substantial name talks and that he should not give up a chance to solve the issue and so [Macedonia would] be invited to join NATO at the next summit in Chicago [in May],” Pendarovski told Balkan Insight.
 
The Chicago summit is seen as the next opportunity for Macedonia to make a breakthrough as regards NATO membership.

In an interview last week, Prime Minister Gruevski dampened hopes that the dispute could be resolved before the next NATO summit, however.

Citing alleged unwillingness to compromise by the Greek side, and a general lack of interest among world leaders in the problem, he expressed pessimism about the new round of name talks.

“Reeker will probably remind Gruevski that despite all the difficulties he cannot hide from his responsibility for his country’s Euro-Atlantic accession bid,” Pendarovski noted.

Reeker is well acquainted with conditions in Macedonia. Before taking his current post he served as US ambassador to Macedonia from 2008 to 2011. In his current post he is also in charge of US relations with Macedonia.

In a leaked US confidential document dating from May 2009, published on WikiLeaks in August last year, Reeker, then US ambassador to Skopje, wrote to the then US Deputy Secretary of State, James Steinberg, about the name dispute.

“The trouble is that it is next to impossible that the GoG [Government of Greece] would ever agree to a document that would define the citizens of this country as 'Macedonians' or the language as 'Macedonian.' If negotiations actually progress, this issue may prove the sticking point,” he wrote.

 As part of his tour Reeker will also visit Kosovo, Serbia, Turkey and Austria.