On May 6th, the Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard delivered a speech titled “Ukraine and the New European (Clean) Energy Debate” at Washington, D.C.’s Brookings Institution. During the question and answer session, UMD President Metodija A. Koloski posed a question of Foreign Minister Lidegaard on his efforts to help resolve the Greece-Macedonia name dispute.
Below is a transcription of the question, and answer:
Koloski: “In light of the Ukraine matter, we hope to see some deliverables on enlargement this year, in particularly the 15, 10, 5, (of NATO) and 10 (anniversaries of enlargement) with the EU, in your discussion with your Greek counterpart are there any messages you’re sending in regards to the Macedonia issue, and hopefully we can resolve this as soon as possible so that we can see the country in NATO and EU but it is in Greece’s best interest to have this country stable and secure, particularly its economic interests, any thoughts or feedback on that?”
Foreign Minister Lidegaard: “Ok, well, the Macedonian question, as far as I’ve understood, this issue is being negotiated, the question about the name, and how the Macedonia’s name is used, and I think that not only does Greece have huge interest to solve that problem in getting on and I will expect that to happen, simply as that. The time framework for it I don’t want to guess on.”