Zaev-Yildirim: Turkey supports Macedonia for NATO membership, bilateral cooperation to be promoted

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev met Monday with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

Zaev kicked off late Sunday his official visit to Turkey accompanied by Minister for Foreign Investments Adnan Kahil, MPs Enes Ibrahimi and Jusuf Hasan and State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Viktor Dimovski.

Zaev at the beginning of the meeting expressed his condolences to the victims in the fight against terrorism aimed at protecting the territorial sovereignty and integrity of the country. Both sides agreed that the fight against terrorism is an important issue for world peace protection, government’s press service told.

Both prime ministers and delegations expressed preparedness to contribute towards creation of conditions for enhancing economic cooperation between two countries and boosting trade exchange.

The launch of the joint committee between the two countries has been agreed, which will effectively address all the needs for better cooperation at every level. Zaev said minister without portfolio Adnan Kahil will head the committee from Macedonian side.

Zaev said that all investments are important for our country, and Turkey is the sixth country in Macedonia according to the number of investments. We are prepared to create conditions for more investments, because there are interested investors.

The meeting was also focused on possibility of facilitation especially in agriculture.

“We expect progress in EU and NATO integration this year, and we expect this to have impact on increase of investments and better quality of life of the citizens,” Zaev underlined.

At the meeting between two delegations, Zaev requested Turkey’s support for Macedonia’s NATO membership, while Yildirim said that the Republic of Turkey supports the Republic of Macedonia for this strategic goal.