SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
NATO Sec Gen Jens Stoltenberg hopes a membership invitation will be able to be sent to Macedonia at the Summit in Brussels on 11 and 12 July, following the Skopje-Athens name agreement. “Hopefully, we can make progress especially when it comes to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia because they have now reached an agreement with Greece on the name issue and if this agreement is finalised and fully implemented, the new name will be ‘the Republic of North Macedonia’, then we can move on when it comes to membership for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,” he said in an interview with France 24 TV on Wednesday. Asked whether there was a timeframe for that, he said that it depended on the finalisation. “It depends a bit on when they are able to finalise the agreement in Skopje, but hopefully we can start accession talks at the Summit, at least make a decision to start them at the NATO Summit in July if everything moves on as planned when it comes to ratification and also a referendum in Skopje later on this year,” the NATO Sec Gen stressed. The same day, Zaev talked about Macedonia’s road in his address in Parliament. “Today, the North Atlantic Council made a unanimous decision to put the item for a NATO invitation for Macedonia at the Summit of the Alliance on 11 and 12 July in Brussels,” he said.
