US strongly supports progress in FYROM name talks, says US envoy
The US Ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, reiterated on Friday his country's ardent support for the ongoing negotiations between Athens and Skopje to resolve the decades-old dispute on the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).
“Greece and the United States share strongly a vision of deeper integration of the Western Balkans into European and Euro Atlantic Institutions," he said in remarks at the Balkan Black Sea Forum in Athens.
"And in this regard, we welcome and strongly support recent progress to Macedonia name issue, which holds the key to unlocking deeper economic and political ties between Greece and the Western Balkans,” he added.
The ambassador also said the US is against the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the Turkish Stream, both of which would bring Russian gas to Europe through Germany and across the Black Sea to Turkey, respectively, saying they are viewed as a threat to Europe's energy security.
“Our shared interest in Europe’s energy security is the why we oppose development of the Nordstream II or a second line of the Turkish stream,” he said.
“Nord Stream II would concentrate two-thirds of Russian gas imports to the EU through a single route, creating a choke point that would significantly increase Europe’s vulnerability to a supply disruption."
