“Alexis Tsipras is honest, he believes the solution to the name issue will be a good development for his country,” FYROM’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said, adding that the most difficult obstacles were building mutual trust and ensuring that the solution would be final and protect the dignity and identity of both sides, while stressing that Skopje had no irredentist aspirations.

“Building trust between the two sides – what we are doing now – and how we will guarantee on both sides that the final solution will last forever, that it will protect the dignity and identity of both sides: this is the most important part of the process”, Mr Zaev said, responding to a question by the Athens News Agency (ANA-MPA), during the official visit he made to Berlin Wednesday, where he was received by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the” Macedonian “prime minister”.

Asked about the possibility of finding a solution before the next NATO summit, he said: “We have our differences on the name issue. There is a possibility that we can find a solution, but only if we build such confidence and provide the necessary legal guarantees to the process of negotiations about what will be acceptable by the people. Not only by Zaev and Tsipras, or by Dimitrov and Kotzias.”

Mr Zaev, who spoke at a closed event of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Berlin yesterday evening, reassured about his government’s sincere commitment to finding a solution to the dispute with Greece.

During his speech at the event, the FYROM Prime Minister explained the issue of the name as a ”significant obstacle” for his country’s EU and NATO membership, and referred to the effort made with the Greek government: “With Greece, we are building a positive momentum in order to overcome the long-standing name dispute.”