In the wake of talks with his Greek colleague, FYROM Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov said Greece should accept that “Macedonians” are exactly that and speak the “Macedonian language”.

Speaking to local TV station “Telma TV”, Mr Dimitrov presented his country’s “red lines” in the negotiations with Greece, two days ahead of a new round of talks scheduled to be held in Vienna under the auspices of UN special representative Matthew Nimetz.

Dimitrov defended an agreement with Greece – within the framework of a conditional geographic determination – while saying he remained unyielding on the issue of the “identity” and “language”.

In his interview, Mr Dimitrov argued that a compromise with Greece should be based on two main axes. A name with a geographic delineation that will differentiate “Macedonia” from Greek Macedonia and the acceptance – apparently from the Greek side – that the citizens of FYROM were “Macedonians” who spoke the “Macedonian” language.