Minister of Defence Radmila Sekerinska on Friday in Zagreb took part in the US-Adriatic Charter Defence Ministerial, the first such meeting in which Macedonia – one of the founding countries of the initiative – participates after being invited to join NATO. Minister Sekerinska was congratulated on Macedonia’s NATO breakthrough by US Secretary of Defence James Mattis, and by the co-chairs of the meeting, namely the defence ministers of Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Macedonian MoD said in a press release. Defence Secretary Mattis praised the name agreement reached by Macedonia and Greece, which ‘has resulted in formal invitation for the opening of accession negotiations with NATO.’