English
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski met today with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, during the Western Balkans summit in the UK. During the meeting we discussed deepening our bileteral cooperation and the support the United Kingdom gives to the countries in the region, Mickoski said following the meeting.
In a statement to the press, the Prime Minister focused on Macedonia’s EU integration and the efforts to promote this cause in the European capitals.
I have said many times that we must win at home and I have no dilemma here, that the homework is the most important, but we must also win in London, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Washington and other capitals of member states and the EU, but also of influential countries in the world. We will fight to defend the national interests and the interests of Macedonia, and in general, the citizens. The future of the country is within the EU, that is one of our last strategic goals. We will do everything in our power to fulfill this strategic goal, but at the same time to protect Macedonian interests, said Prime Minister Mickoski.
After most of the meetings he had at the Western Balkans Summit within the framework of the Berlin Process, he stressed that he remains optimistic. It is important, he noted, for the country to deliver its homework – reforms.
We will do that in the period to come. I expect progress in the area of resolving the problem we have at the moment, but let’s see, we said – our goal is to protect our national dignity, our identity and our national interests. Naturally, the message from their side is that our country’s place is within the EU, as well as of the entire Western Balkan region in general. A rather inspiring and concrete discussion was held by the German Chancellor, Mr. Merz, who clearly stated how he sees the region, naturally it is a closed meeting and now I would not like to talk about the details, but he gave a very clear direction, how he sees the region and what are the plans for the future of the region related to integration within the EU, the Prime Minister emphasized.
Mickoski informed that he had many meetings with high-ranking representatives at which he discussed various topics. The Prime Minister also met with French Minister for Europe, Benjamin Haddad. “We stated our positions, or rather the positions that we repeat all the time, that there must be delivery in terms of guarantees by the EU itself, there must be delivery from our eastern neighbor in terms of respecting international law, respecting European institutions such as the Court of Human Rights, integrating the Macedonian community within the framework of the Ministerial Council for Minorities in our eastern neighbor, etc.”, said Mickoski.
Overall, we had a very fruitful day here in London, with many meetings that covered several different topics, economy, security and the process of integrating Macedonia into the EU, which were generally topics that were also covered at the Berlin Process Summit. Another topic was added here, and that was illegal migration.
We are practically defending Europe from Europe, because migrants from EU member states enter our country illegally. I also brought this idea to Prime Minister Starmer, during the bilateral meeting, that British experts, British expertise, and even police officers, members of the British Army would be welcome, to protect our south-eastern border from illegal migration together with our members and thus protect Europe, I presented our open invitation, explained Mickoski.
He also referred to the memorandum of understanding with the American-British defense consortium Burstock that will invest in a factory.
