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Outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last night he expected the summit to produce important decisions on the future of NATO and on further strengthening aid to Ukraine.
The summit was also attended by a Macedonian government delegation led by Prime Minister Mikoski, including Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Timczu Muczuski, Minister of Defense Vlado Misajlovski and Minister of Interior Pans Toshkovski. Assembly President Afrin Gash was also in Washington for the NATO Parliamentary Summit.
A number of bilateral meetings are planned with politicians from the alliance’s member states, but it is not yet certain whether Mycoski will meet during the summit with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is also attending.
Prime Minister Mykoski expressed hope, before heading to Washington to discuss a possible meeting with his Greek counterpart, that if that happens, “they will maintain their dignity and engage in dialogue as partners and good neighbors.”
On the other hand, Mitsotakis announced that the issue of “violations of the Prespa agreement by neighboring countries” will be raised at the Washington summit. Panos Amyras, director of the Greek Prime Minister’s Office of Public and Media Relations, reiterated this attitude yesterday in an interview with state television ERT and said that there are no plans for a meeting between the two prime ministers, Athens reporters reported.
As part of his trip to the United States, Prime Minister Mykoski held a number of bilateral meetings with senior US representatives yesterday in Washington and gave a speech at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he addressed the audience, among other things: about the start of our negotiations with the EU. At the same time he stressed that we cannot guarantee final demands in the negotiations with Bulgaria.
“We will not be ready to start negotiations if we do not include in the constitution hundreds of citizens, who are part of the Bulgarian minority in Macedonia. Who can assure us that this is the final request? At the Strasbourg Human Rights Court we have 14 judgments stating that the rights of the Macedonian community in Bulgaria have been violated. A logical question arises here, whose rights have been violated”, Mikoski said.
Referring to Bulgaria’s veto, he stressed that real good neighborly relations should be discussed, but it should be a two-way street. Mikoski said that Macedonian citizens have made too many sacrifices and suffered enough humiliation for the prospect of Europe.
“We are not politicians who are full of accusations of crime and corruption like the rest of the region. We will protect our interests, we are ready to discuss arguments, present them and see whose arguments will prevail. Macedonian citizens have made an unprecedented contribution to the European prospect,” Prime Minister Mikoski stressed.
The foundation of NATO was laid on April 4, 1949, when the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington by 12 countries, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, the United States, France and the Netherlands. Today, the alliance has 32 members, of which Macedonia became a full member in 2020. Finland will be the last to join the alliance in 2023, and Sweden in 2024.
This will be the last NATO summit under the leadership of Stoltenberg, who will be succeeded by former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in the fall.
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