UN mediator Matthew Nimetz (centre) with Greek FM Nikos Kotzias (left) and Macedonian FM Nikola Dimitrov (right). Archive photo: EPA-EFE/YANNIS KOLESIDIS.

The ‘name’ talks resume on Friday in New York at 3.30pm Macedonian time, after Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov and Greece’s Nikos Kotzias marathon six-hour discussion the previous day.

After the talks, the two diplomats did not give any statements about possible progress.

Before the start of the fresh talks, Macedonia reiterated that it will continue to support the latest compromise solution package discussed last Friday at the Western Balkans Summit, involving the proposed composite name for the country, ‘Republic of Ilinden Macedonia’.

“We think that’s a good basis for a definitive solution,” Macedonian government spokesperson Mile Bosnjakovski said in Skopje on Wednesday.

Last Friday, after a meeting between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his Greek counterpart on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans summit in Sofia, the two sides sounded close to a compromise.

Following their meeting, Zaev said the two Prime Ministers had pinpointed one concrete package that might lead to a solution and he later revealed that the package included the composite name ‘Republic of Ilinden Macedonia’, which he said the Macedonian side had proposed.

He also said he was ready to support widespread use of this name and initiate constitutional changes to incorporate it at home. He said the name did not jeopardise Macedonian identity.

But he also warned that if another name came back on the table, the Greek demands concerning its use and about changes to the Macedonian constitution would have to be renegotiated as well.

In Greece, this proposal got a cool response from the opposition, while Greek Prime Minister Tsipras was also reserved about it.

Greece has repeated on several occasions his week that it prefers another compromise name, one that is part of the ideas proposed earlier by the UN mediator in the dispute, Matthew Nimetz, who is hosting the two foreign ministers in New York.

After Nimetz in January proposed a set of five ideas for a new composite name, Greece this week said it was willing to negotiate over four of them, which include adjectives to distinguish its neighbour from the northern Greek province of Macedonia.

The adjectives Nimetz offered were: New, Upper, Northern or Vardarska – stemming from Macedonia’s biggest river, the Vardar – before the word Macedonia.

“We obviously support the need to adopt one of the names proposed by Nimetz and to proceed towards the implementation of a strategic plan of friendly collaboration in the future with this country under its new name,” Greek Foreign Minister Kotzias said on Tuesday, after meeting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Prior to the fresh talks in New York, there have been reports of increased international diplomatic activity to encourage both sides to make the final push towards compromise.

Apart from Washington’s interest in the dispute, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office on Tuesday confirmed that she had held telephone conversations lately with both the Greek and the Macedonian Prime Ministers.

In a press statement issued this week, France also expressed support for the efforts of both countries to close the dispute, assessing that the talks are at an advanced stage.