Bilateral relations Bilateralism is the conduct of political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states. It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism, which is activity by a single state or jointly by multiple states, respectively. When ...

exist between

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

. Greece has an embassy in

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

, and a Consulate General in

Bitola Bitola (; ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki border crossing ...

. Similarly, North Macedonia maintains an embassy in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, and a consulate-general in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

. Both countries are members of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

. Greece is an EU member and North Macedonia is an EU candidate.

Relations

Ever since the former Republic of Macedonia broke away from former Yugoslavia in 1991, Greece has refused to recognize its name. The provisional reference ''the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia'' (FYROM) was used in relations with Greece from 1991 to 2019. All United Nations member-states agreed to accept any final agreement resulting from negotiations between the two countries. The dispute did not prevent the two countries from enjoying close trade links and investment levels (especially from Greece), but it generated a great deal of political and academic debate on both sides. On 13 September 1995, the two countries signed the Interim Accord, whereby Greece recognized the Republic of Macedonia under its provisional reference. Negotiations aimed at resolving the dispute continued intermittently from 1995 to 2018. Under Greek pressure, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and

agreed that in order for the Republic of Macedonia to receive an invitation to join these institutions the name dispute needed to be resolved first. This resulted in a case at the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

against Greece for violation of the Interim Accord. In the

2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia , combatant2 = Macedonia , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = 2,000–3,000+ militants (beginning of the war) Unknown , strength2 = 20,000 soldiers and policemen 60 T-55 tanks 4 Su-25 aircr ...

, Greece sent peacekeeping forces together with other

and

members. In addition, Greece donated 10 APC Leonidas-2 to the Republic of Macedonia. On 4 October 2012, the Greek foreign minister Dimitris Avramopoulos sent a memorandum of understanding to the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, Nikola Poposki. On 12 June 2018, Greece agreed to recognize its neighbor as the Republic of North Macedonia, a move which the Republic of Macedonia welcomed, and on 17 June 2018 the two Prime Ministers (

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras (, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. A left-wing figure, Tsipras was leader of the List of political parties in Greece, Greek political party Syriza from 200 ...

and

Zoran Zaev Zoran Zaev (, ; born 8 October 1974) is a Macedonian economist and politician who served as prime minister of North Macedonia from May 2017 to January 2020, and again from August 2020 to January 2022. Prior to entering politics, he ran a privat ...

) signed the

Prespa agreement Prespa (, , ) is a region shared between North Macedonia, Greece and Albania. It shares the same name with the two Prespa lakes which are situated in the middle of the region. The largest town is Resen in North Macedonia with 9,000 inhabitan ...

ending the naming dispute. The agreement was subject to a national

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

held in the Republic of Macedonia on 30 September 2018, which approved the agreement and renamed the country to "North Macedonia". In 2019 Delphi Economic Forum, Alexis Tsipras announced also the intention of the two countries to found a Supreme Council of Cooperation. Prior to 2019, Greece maintained a Liaison Office in Skopje and an Office of Consular, Economic and Commercial Affairs in Bitola. Similarly, North Macedonia maintained a Liaison Office in Athens and an Office for Consular, Economic and Commercial Affairs in Thessaloniki. However, since May 2019, the two countries exchanged

notes verbales Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) s ...

upgrading their Liaison Offices and the Consular Offices into Embassies and Consulate Generals, as result of the Prespa Agreement. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Greece donated 20,000 vaccines to North Macedonia. Tensions between the two countries returned after the election of the nationalist party

VMRO-DPMNE The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (), abbreviated as VMRO-DPMNE (), is a conservative and the main centre-right to right-wing political party in North Macedonia. It was establ ...

in May 2024. The new President of

Siljanovska-Davkova used the formerly widely used name "Macedonia" during her inauguration. The Greek prime minister

Kyriakos Mitsotakis Kyriakos Mitsotakis (, ; born 4 March 1968) is a Greek politician currently serving as the prime minister of Greece since July 2019, except for a month between May and June 2023. Mitsotakis has been president of the New Democracy (Greece), New ...

called the speech an "illegal and unacceptable act" that "constitutes a violation of the Prespa Agreement." and threatened to block North Macedonia's EU admission. In March 2025, several individuals injured in the Kočani nightclub fire were transferred to Greece for treatment, following Greece's offer of assistance to North Macedonia.

References

External links

Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the relation with North Macedonia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greece-North Macedonia relations

Relations

See also

References

External links