US strongly supports progress in FYROM name talks, says US envoy

The US Ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, reiterated on Friday his country's ardent support for the ongoing negotiations between Athens and Skopje to resolve the decades-old dispute on the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

"Greece and the United States share strongly a vision of deeper integration of the Western Balkans into European and Euro Atlantic Institutions," he said in remarks at the Balkan Black Sea Forum in Athens.

"And in this regard, we welcome and strongly support recent progress to Macedonia name issue, which holds the key to unlocking deeper economic and political ties between Greece and the Western Balkans," he added.

The ambassador also said the US is against the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the Turkish Stream, both of which would bring Russian gas to Europe through Germany and across the Black Sea to...