Zaev: NATO is Factor of Stability in our country

The PM Zoran Zaev and the Dutch Ambassador to Macedonia Dirk Jan Kop took part Thursday in a debate titled “Road towards NATO Membership: From isolation to integration”, organised by the NATO Caravan and the Faculty of Philosophy at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. “NATO is one of the main factors of stability and security in our country, and these are very important for our proper economic development. The integration in NATO increases the foreign investments, making our country more competitive,” Zaev said. The Dutch Ambassador Dirk Jan Kop said that in around 20 years the current university students will manage Macedonia, as a member-state of both NATO and EU, adding that Macedonia belongs in Europe, in both political and economic sphere. Answering a journalist’s question about the completion of the process for integration of Macedonia in NATO, PM Zaev said that Spain is expected to ratify the NATO Protocol for Accession of Macedonia by the end of January 2020. “I was assured by the Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez that he will form the new Spanish government at the beginning of January, after which he will immediately forward to the Spanish Parliament the draft-law for ratification of the NATO Protocol,” PM Zaev said during a debate over Macedonia’s integration in NATO held in Skopje. Commenting on the recent disagreements between ruling parties SDSM and DUI about the Venice Commission’s recommendations over the Law on Languages, Zaev said that their alliance was established on solid grounds and that they have realised serious successes in the past two years. “For the majority of issues we managed to find rather productive and successful solutions. Apart from the fact that at the moment all parties prepare for the upcoming snap election in April 2020 which makes parties to have a rather more selfish approach to politics, inside the government the alliance between SDSM and DUI functions just fine,” Zaev said.