SLOVENIA WANTS A NATO INVITATION FOR MACEDONIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000070 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/ERA, EUR/NCE E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/15/2018 TAGS: MARR NATO PREL GR MK SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA WANTS A NATO INVITATION FOR MACEDONIA REF: SECSTATE 14821 Classified By: Charge Maryruth Coleman, Reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) On February 14, A/DCM met with MFA Head of Security Policy Division Stanislav Vidovic to outline our current thinking on Macedonia's candidacy and to encourage Slovenia to join our calls to both Skopje and Athens to use the Nimetz process to reach a solution on the name issue before Bucharest. Vidovic welcomed our points, expaining that FM Rupel planned to meet with the viiting Macedonian Speaker of Parliament on Februay 15. A/DCM urged the MFA to take advantage of the visit to encourage Macedonia to show sufficient flexibility to resolve the name issue. Vidovic was noncommittal, arguing that NATO should not allow Greece to veto Macedonia over the name issue. ¶2. (C) Vidovic stressed his concern about our point that "any failure to resolve this issue and extend an invitation to Macedonia should not engender action to deny other applications judged ready for future membership." He said his recommendation to the GOS would be to insist on all three. He explained that a NATO acceptance of only Croatia would send bad signals to the rest of the western Balkans and create problems with the future enlargement of the EU. ¶3. (C) Comment: While Vidovic admitted he did not know how the Slovenian authorities would react to his recommendation, we expect his superiors to share his reasoning. COLEMAN