Mike Pompeo to visit Skopje in October
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit North Macedonia in the first half of October as part of a diplomatic tour of the region, according to unofficial sources. Podgorica’s Vijesti said the US diplomat would stay in Montenegro, but no date has been confirmed. Pompeo will be the first US Secretary of State to visit the country since Colin Powell’s visit during the crisis in April, 2000. Ahead of the referendum in Skopje, Pentagon chief and Secretary of Defense James Matisse visited the country.
The head of the State Department and one of US President Donald Trump’s closest associates should first arrive to Skopje, and then pay an official visit to Montenegro.
Pompeo recently appointed Matthew Palmer as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibility for the Western Balkans.