Macedonia could join NATO as early as January 2019?

Macedonia's accession negotiations with NATO have already begun and can be completed by January 2019, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

"Accession negotiations have already started and I expect that we can complete them by January of next year," Stoltenberg told reporters ahead of Wednesday's meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

"For Macedonia, there is no path to NATO other than accepting the agreement on changing the country's name," Stoltenberg added, Belgrade-based daily Blic reported on Tuesday.

A referendum was held in Macedonia on Sunday on the agreement with Greece, that would change the name of this former Yugoslav republic to "the Republic of North Macedonia," and on the country's EU and NATO membership.

However, only 36.9 percent of voters went to the polls, which was far below the required 50 percent plus one. Although a vast majority of those who turned out, over 90 percent, voted "yes" - this was not enough to legitimize the agreement.

For this reason, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev now faces the difficult job of getting the deal approved in parliament.