The meeting of the General Assembly of the UN to be held in end September will be attended by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski instead of President Gjorge Ivanov, Vreme reports. This is interpreted in the light of the pressure on Macedonia and Greece that is expected to increase in September in order to resolve the name issue by the NATO Summit in Lisbon in November whereupon Macedonia could join NATO. Analysts do not rule out the possibility for yet another meeting between Gruevski and his Greek counterpart Papandreou in New York.

In the run-up to the NATO Summit, mediator Matthew Nimetz is said to be preparing a new, and perhaps a final, proposal for resolution of the name issue, before withdrawing. Vreme speculates that Nimetz could propose that either “Northern” or “Vardar” is added to the constitutional name of the country. Therefore, the pressure on both countries is going to rise over the coming period from both the UN and the EU, which decided to get directly involved as a mediator in the talks and the rapprochement between Macedonia and Greece.

Analysts define the period to the Summit in Lisbon as the last chance for Macedonia, whose Euro-Atlantic integration would drop to the bottom of interests of the international community and which will become internationally isolated if it misses the chance.

The Greek daily Kathimerini reported Monday that Skopje and Athens were ahead of a strong pressure for reaching a deal fast and that the name issue would be tabled in New York in a month at the meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of NATO.