Politics of the Republic of Macedonia

Russia has been making a concerted bid to create four neutral or pro-Russian states in the Western Balkans - but the results have been mixed, according to the London-based think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, IISS.

Bulgaria and Macedonia are very close to signing their good-neighbourhood treaty, Prime Ministers Boyko Borisov and Zoran Zaev said after a meeting in Sofia. Zaev said he is confident that the signing will occur as soon as August 2, FOCUS News Agency reported.

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev will meet his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov and President Rumen Radev on Tuesday, amid optimism that the two countries can finally resolve their open issues by signing a long delayed agreement on good-neighborly relations.

With a June 30 deadline to press charges - which is unlikely to be prolonged by Macedonia's parliament - the special prosecution, SJO - tasked with probing high-level crime - says it will try to wrap up as manyinvestigations as it can by then.

Macedonia's new government will work hard to convince the EU to revive accession talks by this autumn, and to address Greece's objections to the country's NATO accession, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told top EU and NATO officials in Brussels on Monday.

Zoran Zaev - Photo: AP

Zoran Zaev's statement about his country's "neutrality" if Kosovo's UNESCO bid again comes up for a vote, has caused dissatisfaction of the Albanian community.

Long-standing members of the former ruling right-wing VMRO DPMNE party - which is now in opposition after 11 years in power - have launched a bid to 'democratise' the party.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg does not plan to travel to Skopje, but expects Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to visit NATO in Brussels on Monday.

The VMRO DPMNE accused Zaev of lying when he said in a televised interview on Tuesday night that he found only six million euros in the budget when he came to office, and also discovered that there might be around another billion euros of additional, unreported debt to deal with.

PM Boyko Borisov greeted Zoran Zaev on his election as a primier of the Republic of Macedonia and expressed his expectations for the strengthening of the good neighborly relations between the two states and also for Macedonia's approximination to the EU accession negotiations, reported BNR.