US troops joined forces from Britain, France, Italy and allied countries in the region Thursday in a military exercise held in NATO’s newest member, North Macedonia, aimed at displaying deployment readiness along the alliance’s eastern borders.
NORTH MACEDONIA
The European Union wants to start formal membership talks with North Macedonia by early this summer and renew efforts to address objections from Bulgaria that have held up the process, a top EU official said Wednesday.
North Macedonia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered six Russian diplomats to leave the country over violations of diplomatic norms, the second such expulsion in less than a month, a statement said.
The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on seven people in the Western Balkans it accused of being a “threat to regional stability,” including Nikola Gruevski, who was prime minister of North Macedonia from 2006 to 2016.
In the event of political change in North Macedonia, the Prespes agreement with Greece will be respected by a possible new government in Skopje, the country’s Defense Minister Slavjanka Petrovska assured in an interview with Kathimerini during her visit to the Delphi Economic Forum.
Albania will ask the European Union if it can pursue its membership bid separately from its neighbor North Macedonia which continues to face a Bulgarian veto, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Thursday.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias hosted a working breakfast for his North Macedonia counterpart Bujar Osmani on the sidelines of the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday.
North Macedonia will close its airspace for all Russian aircraft except for humanitarian and emergency flights in line with European Union recommendations, its government said on Sunday.
Police in North Macedonia have detained 16 migrants from India who were allegedly trying to enter neighboring Greece illegally, as migrant-smuggling gangs try new routes in answer to pandemic travel restrictions and tougher border controls.
The governments of Bulgaria and North Macedonia held a joint session Tuesday to improve relations, which have been locked in a historic row and further strained after Bulgaria blocked its Balkan neighbor’s bid to join the European Union.
North Macedonia was thrust into the post-Zaev era on December 22. In a short statement, Zoran Zaev announced that he had submitted his resignation as prime minister to the country’s parliamentary speaker.
The new premiers of Bulgaria and North Macedonia agreed on Tuesday to try to overcome problems that prompted Sofia to block the start of accession talks between the European Union and Skopje.
North Macedonia’s parliament on Sunday approved a new coalition Cabinet led by the Social Democrats, with two ethnic Albanian parties as junior partners.
New leader of North Macedonia’s Socialists becomes PM-designate Dimitar Kovacevski, the new leader of North Macedonia’s ruling Socialists, said on Tuesday that he had been confirmed by his party as the country’s prime minister-designate following Zoran Zaev’s formal resignation as premier last week.
North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has formally filed his resignation to the parliament on Wednesday, following his party’s loss at mayoral elections in the country in October.
European Union governments reaffirmed on Tuesday their promise to allow six Balkan countries to one day join the bloc, nudging the EU towards finally opening talks with North Macedonia and Albania.
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