Macedonia and Greece Agree on 11 Confidence Building Measures

The Foreign Affairs Ministers of Macedonia and Greece Nikola Poposki and Nikos Kotzias announced that the two countries have agreed a set of 11 confidence building measures that would help improve cooperation between the two countries. Kotzias and Poposki also said that the countries believe a solution can be found to the name issue, which has blocked Macedonia's integration in NATO and the European Union.

"Our conclusion today is that we are taking a new step for mutually active approach and for cooperation on practical issues. The weakest link in the past decades in our bilateral relations has been the lack of trust. On the other hand, the strongest link has always been the readiness of our citizens, businesses and societies to connect and cooperate with each other. With the step we are making today we aim to reinforce the weakest link by using the strongest one. Simply put, we have a tradition of mistrust that we can overcome together, and we believe that cooperation is the best way toward building trust", Minister Poposki said at the joint meeting with Kotzias.

The measures of cooperation cover issues in education, healthcare, diplomatic relations and other areas. Poposki added that there is no solution to the name issue between the two countries being reached today, but that there is agreement to expand the number of confidence buillding measures.

Kotzias said that Greece would like to see Macedonia advance further in European integrations and that Greece is doing all it can to help in this regard. "We can resolve the name issue based on international law and good neighborly relations. Every problem has a solution", Kotzias said. Greece has demanded that Macedonia must change its constitutional name, and has prevented Macedonian entry into NATO at the 2008 Bucharest Summit, as well as opening accession talks to join the European Union since 2009.

During this rare high level visit of a top Greek official to Macedonia, Kotzias is meeting with President Gjorge Ivanov, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Besimi, who is in charge of European integrations in the Government.

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