An hour-long phone call between Greek premier Alexis Tsipras and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) leader Zoran Zaev took place on Monday, but there was no sign of a historic deal on the two countries’ name dispute.
A statement from Tsipras’ office indicated that the two men spoke for about an hour at 3 p.m. local time (1200GMT).
Another phone call is scheduled to take place tomorrow morning, the statement added.
Athens has requested that Skopje deletes all articles in the country’s constitution it deems to be irredentist and accept that a new name will be for all uses, both domestic and international (erga omnes).
According to unconfirmed reports, Zaev is scheduled to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday and present her with a proposal to resolve the decades-old name row.
Last week, Greek Foreign Minister Kotzias — who met Tsipras for about 90 minutes earlier on Monday — said he expects the FYROM naming issue to be resolved soon with a new moniker being chosen from ‘New Macedonia’, ‘Upper Macedonia’, or ‘North Macedonia’.
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