NATO chief in FYROM to discuss accession bid

NATO’s secretary general is meeting officials in Skopje to discuss the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s (FYROM) renewed accession bid, a decade after a dispute with neighboring Greece halted an initial effort to join the alliance.

Jens Stoltenberg met FYROM President Gjorge Ivanov, as well as the ministers of defense and foreign affairs in the capital Skopje on Thursday. He will also meet with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and address a Parliament session.

Officials in Athens and Skopje, where Zaev’s government took over last year, have voiced hopes their decades-long quarrel over FYROM’s name can be resolved within months.

NATO member Greece blocked FYROM’s bid to join the alliance in 2008 due to the dispute. [AP]