Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and his counterpart from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYROM), Nikola Poposki, announced on Thursday that they will continue regular bilateral visits, in a bid toward building trust in bilateral relations.
In a joint press conference after the meeting, Kotzias said they were both “happy with the initiative we took and the confidence-building measures. We already have five measures on which we are progressing creatively. We are satisfied with the meetings that took place for the political dialogue between our very high-level diplomats, and we want to face the future and all of the issues the two countries are looking at with trust, within the new international environment as well as in the relations between us.”
He said the two sides wanted to cooperate on the refugee issue and contribute to the stability of the wider region, noting that Poposki had met Alternate Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Toskas to discuss ways to develop police cooperation.
They also discussed ways to enrich cooperation in the economy and tourism sector, as well as FYROM’s European perspective, Kotzias said, adding that they had “a particularly interesting conversation” about the neighboring country interest in connecting to Greece’s energy networks.
“We both want there to be good cooperation between the two states, and we want voices of extremist nationalism and irredentism to be isolated… We want to capitalize on the talks taking place at the UN on the central problem of the name,” he added.
Poposki, on his part, confirmed a desire for deeper cooperation with Greece and said it was an important step on the part of Greek agencies – such as the citizen protection ministry – that they were talking with FYROM.
“We talked about a number of issues. We concluded on which sectors are the ones where our positions differ, and we also identified the sectors that are important for our two countries,” he said, noting that the Skopje’s government’s strategy was to have good relations with Greece.
Referring to the refugee crisis, he said that cooperation and a positive stance must also be reflected in the management of the refugee issue. “We need to do whatever we can to provide decent conditions for the people passing through our countries, and I believe that the European Union can also make its own contribution here,” he said.
(source: ana-mpa)
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