By EWB –

Macedonia and Greece have agreed to form working groups led by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs who will lead the negotiations for solving the 25-year name dispute, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia, Nikola Dimitrov for the Reuters agency.

He expects that the first meeting of the new working groups will be held in February, where the negotiations about potential solutions for the dispute will be done directly.

“We are convinced that there is a will on both sides to move forward,” said the Head of the Macedonian diplomacy about yesterday’s meeting in Thessaloniki with his Greek colleague, Nikos Kotzias.

In the interview, Dimitrov clearly stated that the identity is very important for the Macedonian side and the Greek colleagues will have to be convinced that there is a clear distinction between Macedonia from the region in Northern Greece.