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Closing a new chapter in the Name Dispute
After nearly 27 years of haggling, the race to the finish line for a formal end to the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute kicked into full...
Archive
The wait is over. Name Dispute agreement comes together
After a delayed set of phone calls June 11 and 12, and a late June 12 intervention by UN Mediator Matthew Nimetz, the prime...
Archive
Name Dispute talks hanging in the balance
Ever since the May 28 Brussels announcement that the foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia/FYROM had finished their work and had delivered their proposals...
Archive
Name Dispute talks progress as foreign ministers produce a draft agreement
After meeting in Brussels on May 28, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Macedonia/FYROM Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov announced they had completed work on...
Archive
Name Dispute negotiations: Doing a new tango ahead of the summer summits
Negotiations over the Greece/Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute resumed in New York on May 24-25 following consultations in Washington by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias earlier...
Archive
Name Dispute negotiations: Zaev’s “Ilinden Gambit” melts down in Athens and Skopje
Within 24 hours of the end of bilateral discussions on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Sofia late last week, a new...
Archive
Name Dispute negotiations: Late nights, roadmaps, and summer summits
The outcome of the bilateral meeting in Sofia May 17 between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Macedonia/FYROM Prime Minister Zoran Zaev disappointed the...
Archive
Name Dispute negotiations: Getting closer, but is this just a matter of sequencing or is it deeper?
While the negotiations over the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute returned to a faster track after the visit of UN Mediator Matthew Nimetz to Athens May...
Archive
Name Dispute talks focus on opportunities at upcoming EU-Western Balkans Summit
With the window for a potential agreement before the upcoming EU and NATO Summits in June and July nearly closed, efforts to reach agreement...
Archive
Name Dispute negotiations slowly drop off the “fast track”
With the Name Dispute negotiations off the front burner in Athens, both countries involved in the negotiations (Greece and FYROM/Macedonia) focused on other important...
Archive
Little progress on Name Dispute after “remedial diplomacy” session called by Matthew Nimetz
Filling a rare week when no bilateral meetings on the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute were scheduled, UN Mediator Matthew Nimetz organised a special meeting in...
Archive
Athens considers plans for July 2018 Macedonia/FYROM NATO accession unworkable
Announcing his assessment that more time is needed to complete Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute negotiations, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias told an Athens radio station...
Archive
Limited progress reported on Name Dispute at Ohrid meeting
With only three months to go before a critical NATO summit in Bucharest that could potentially approve the admission of new members, the foreign...
Archive
Not quite a week off on the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias spent much of the Greek Orthodox “Holy Week” briefing Greek political parties on the state of the Greece-Macedonia Name...
Archive
Negotiations on Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute advance in Vienna
Despite intense ongoing diplomatic sparring with Turkey on Greece’s Aegean front, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias was able to keep his March 29-30 Vienna...
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Rebooting the Name Dispute negotiations with a symbolic Skopje visit
The visit of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias to Skopje March 22-23 was a clear attempt to reboot the dragging 2018 cycle of the...
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US deepens engagement on Europe’s southern flank
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell continued his weeklong trip through Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean visiting Belgrade...
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Stiffening Europe’s southern flank: Washington moves to reassert itself in the Western Balkans
After a period of relative diplomatic quiescence, a senior policy-level official from the Trump Administration began a weeklong trip through Southeast Europe and the...
Cyprus
US political fireworks reach Delphi Economic Forum
The official American presence at the March 1-4 Delphi Economic Forum came close to being overshadowed by the academics, business people, and American political...
Archive
Foreign actors increasingly making their opinions known about the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Talks
This week we heard several expressions of concern from important regional powers about the developments in the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute. The strategy used by...
Archive
Turmoil in and around Greece may be switching the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Talks into low gear
The barrage of Greek domestic politics and this week’s almost-clashes with Turkey in the Aegean have combined to get the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute talks...
Archive
Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Talks: Searching for new momentum after Nimetz Balkan visit
The UN Mediator for the Greece–FYROM/Macedonia Name Dispute, Matthew Nimetz, visited both Athens and Skopje over the January 29-February 1 period. Important issues were discussed...
Archive
Tsipras-Zaev Davos meeting aims to revive faltering Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Talks
Hoping to resuscitate the stalling diplomatic initiative to resolve the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute negotiations this year, the prime ministers of Greece and Macedonia/FYROM met...
Archive
Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Talks appear to lose the strong momentum seen at the start of 2018
While 2018 opened on a positive note with both Athens and Skopje making hopeful statements and gestures around the New Year pointing to the...
Archive
Trump-Tsipras White House Meeting garners strong Greek interest, but others?
The most significant interaction in Greek PM Alexis Tsipras 5-day US visit was the October 17 meeting/working lunch with US President Donald Trump. ...
Archive
Searching for meaning in Greek PM Tsipras’ planned Washington visit
Since the announcement of a White House meeting for Greek PM Alexis Tsipras last July, issued by the Office of Vice President Pence, observers...
Archive
Macedonia name dispute: Are the stars aligning for a new U.S. push?
In the shadow of the failed Cyprus talks, another critical regional issue for Greece and the Western Balkans is apparently coming back into sharp...
Archive
US Vice President Pence reaches out to Greek PM Tsipras after Cyprus talks collapse
In a clear attempt to minimize the regional political fallout from the failed Cyprus talks, U.S. Vice President Michael Pence called Greek Prime Minister...
Archive
Concordia Europe Summit: Joe Biden tries to contain Trump’s transatlantic shockwaves
Concordia’s June 6-7 inaugural Europe Summit in Athens covered a wide array of issues from the ongoing refugee crisis, Eurozone disputes, the UN’s Sustainable...
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Concordia's Europe Summit inaugurated in Athens
The inaugural Concordia Europe Summit ran June 6-7 in Athens. Launching the star-studded event, Concordia’s founders, Nicholas Logothetis and Matthew Swift, said Greece...
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Russia, Finland, Iceland warm up to Arctic cooperation
Arctic countries gathered in Arkhangelsk, Russia, to discuss current issues relating to the region. Russian President Vladimir Putin with his Finnish and Icelandic counterparts...
Archive
For March 25th at least, Greece comes in from the cold to meet the Trump Administration
For the traditional White House celebration of Greek Independence Day (March 25), everything has always been beautiful, regardless of which party currently holds the...
Archive
US, NATO could play a role in East Med energy security
DELPHI, Greece - The United States and NATO will need to have a military presence in the East Mediterranean to protect the energy resources...
Archive
Professor Obama Salutes Greece, Democracy in Athens “Globalization” Speech
President (and today Professor of Government) Barack Obama concluded his Greece visit with an inspiring speech November 16 at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural...
Archive
John Kerry Graces Greece with a Mini-visit. Check off that box.
The real news is that the Kerry Greece visit actually happened December 4th. That’s one more box to check off for last week’s European...
Archive
John Kerry finally visits Athens. What to Expect
After one postponement last month due to the Syria crisis, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry finally arrives for a short visit in Athens...
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