US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives for a visit to Macedonia today. He will be in Ohrid for meetings with President Stevo Pendarovski and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, as part of his regional tour that will later take him to Greece.
The US embassy indicated that Pompeo will come to express his support for the continued implementation of the Prespa treaty, which imposes the name “North Macedonia” onto Macedonia, and will do so in his visit to Greece as well. Regional security should feature highly on the agenda, as will the expected entry of Macedonia into NATO. It’s the first visit by a US Secretary of State to Macedonia since 2001, during the short lived civil war.
The visit comes as the US is appointing its ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as its representative in the talks between Serbia and Kosovo. This has increased expectations of a possible push to resolve the Kosovo issue, which might include territory swaps, a move that was endorsed by top outgoing EU Commission officials and some in the White House. Macedonian authorities fear this move would lead to calls for a similar partition of Macedonia along ethnic lines as well.
While in Ohrid Pompeo will also visit the Holy Mary Perivlepta church, where USAID has funded some restauration activities.
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