Nikola Dimitrov

During his visit to the Macedonia, UN mediator Matthew Nimetz said that issues about [Macedonian] "identity" are not part of his mandate - and that he had not heard the Greek side denying the identity of the people who live in Macedonia.

In comments made to the media following talks with the United Nations mediator in the dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the latter's name, FYROM's foreign minister Nikola Dimitrov said citizens of his country had the right to call themselves "Macedonians."

During a meeting with Macedonian Defense Minister Radmila Shekerinska, he said that Macedonia has shown it has the capacity to focus on democratic processes, defense reforms and become a factor of stability in the region.

"With the consistent implementation of reforms, Macedonia's place is in NATO," Stoltenberg said.

Despite a boycott by VMRO DPMNE, Macedonia's right-wing main opposition party, 61 of the parliament's 120 MPs voted for the agreement. The landmark accord was signed in August 2017 and aims to end the often fraught bilateral relationship between Skopje and Sofia and bring the two countries closer through an EU-oriented partnership.

The Macedonian Parliament ratified the Friendship and Neighborhood Agreement between the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria with 61 votes in favor of the good neighborship and friendship between the two countries.

In comments aired by local television station TV21, the foreign minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Nikola Dimitrov, has said that the use of the term Macedonia is not an exclusive privilege of Greece.

Tuesday's meeting in New York between United Nations special envoy Matthew Nimetz and negotiators from Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) will kick-start a two-week period of activity which could prove pivotal to the course of talks over name dispute that has divided the two countries for decades.

The renaming of Skopje’s airport from “Alexander the Great” to “Kiro Gligorov” (former Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia -FYROM- president) proposed diplomats in the country, an idea that seems to be accepted by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev despite the strong objections expressed by Nikola Gruevski’s main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE.

Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris will travel to Skopje on Thursday to meet with his counterpart, Petre Silegov, and discuss closer ties between the two cities.

SKOPJE - Macedonia will treat Pristina's UNESCO membership bid with exceptional caution and with the interests of all in mind, Macedonian FM Nikola Dimitrov said after a meeting with Kosovo FM Bedzet Pacoli in Skopje.