Pyatt: United States supports North Macedonia to become an effective NATO member


The United States Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt, in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini, said that the US focus is to support North Macedonia to become powerful and effective NATO member state.

Concerning signaling from new Greek government on Prespa Agreement, he said that “he will leave the Greek government alone to speak about Prespa Agreement”.

“For me, it is important that the name issue was a source of nervousness for 27 years among US diplomats and their Greek counterparts, and now there is no longer a problem in Greek-US relations. We are concentrating on the support to North Macedonia’s NATO membership. We will be focus on this in the autumn and in our cooperation with the Congress. Certainly, Greece was the first country to ratify the North Macedonia’s NATO accession protocol, which means you closed the issue,” US diplomat said.

Pyatt said that they support the Greece’s role in North Macedonia, mentioning the monitoring of airspace by Greek military planes and possibilities for bilateral cooperation.

“I see great opportunities for Greek businesses in North Macedonia. However, as I said, I will leave the government to talk about politics in relations with North Macedonia. Our focus as a US government is that we will now support this country to become a powerful and effective NATO member state,” Pyatt noted.

Pyatt also mentioned the new US Ambassador to Skopje, Kate Byrnes, adding “I am very proud that the former Deputy Chief of Mission in US Embassy in Athens is now US Ambassador to Skopje. I told FM Dimitrov at The Economist conference, that Byrnes is one the best US diplomats,” said Ambassador Pyatt.