Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman on Thursday met with North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, Nikola Dimitrov.
The meeting highlighted the traditionally friendly bilateral relations as well as Croatia’s continued support for North Macedonia’s European journey. “Today’s talks are a confirmation of the continuity of Croatia and North Macedonia’s partnership, underpinned by the reaching of decision to launch accession negotiations with North Macedonia during the Croatian presidency,” Grlić Radman said. He added that Croatia’s continued political and technical support for North Macedonia’s European integration was unquestionable and that we would continue to push for the reaching of an agreement on the negotiating framework so that the Intergovernmental Conference could take place and the accession talks could begin.
Dimitrov thanked Croatia for supporting North Macedonia’s European integration, stressing that Croatia had had a crucial role in that process for a long time, as confirmed by greenlighting the start of accession negotiations during Croatia’s EU presidency. In that light, North Macedonia expects the close cooperation to continue.
Grlić Radman underscored that the trend of excellent political relations with no outstanding issues should be accompanied by a more intensive cooperation in areas of mutual interest, notably in economy. In addition, the minister thanked for the financial assistance that the North Macedonian government, as well as numerous companies and citizens of that country, had sent to Croatia after the previous year’s earthquake in Banovina.