Greece approves FYROM membership in NATO in exchange for name change

What is historically refereed to as Vardar, which now calls itself “Macedonia,” has been in a long time dispute with Greece over its chosen name. Many people not familiar with the controversy surrounding this will need a little background information.

Now it seems that the two countries are coming to a compromise. The Greek government has agreed to end its opposition to Macedonia’s desire for NATO membership as reported by The Washington Post:

ATHENS, Greece — The foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia say they have concluded the main round of negotiations to end a long-standing dispute over the Macedonia name, with the final stage of talks to be led by the countries’ prime ministers.

Foreign ministers Nikos Kotzias of Greece and Nikola Dimitrov of Macedonia met in Brussels on the sidelines of a European Union meeting Monday. In separate statements, they said further negotiations on the name issue would be directed by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Macedonia’s Zoran Zaev.

Zaev’s government has committed to modifying the republic’s name to address Greek concerns that the current name implies a territorial claim to Greece’s Macedonia region.

In return, Athens has promised to lift its objections to Macedonia’s NATO membership.

This has all the makings of a terrible agreement. NATO expansion is one thing that we can all live without.