Skopje, 14 March 2024 (MIA) — North Macedonia should be a full candidate and an immediate candidate for European Union membership, according to US Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs and Special Representative to the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, who is currently visiting Prishtina, Kosovo.

"North Macedonia should be a full candidate and an immediate candidate for European Union membership. North Macedonia has been a very solid partner, both bilaterally and in multilateral fora such as NATO and the OSCE," he said in a statement posted on the US Embassy in North Macedonia's social media pages.

Speaking to the press in Brussels ahead of his visit to Prishtina, Vienna and Podgorica, Escobar said North Macedonia's previous government had been committed to the state's NATO membership and accession to the EU, MIA's Brussels correspondent reported on Tuesday.

Escobar added that the US administration was expecting that the new government formed after the elections would also be committed to NATO, joining the EU, and fighting against corruption.

He said he hoped to visit North Macedonia after the elections, because during this visit to the region, he said, he would be focusing on issues related to recent developments in Kosovo and in Montenegro.

Asked if the US Senate's proposed respolution to advocate for the opening of the first negotiating cluster of the EU with North Macedonia without additional bilateral conditions was a change in the US position on the country's constitutional amendents, Escobar said both North Macedonia and Bulgaria were important NATO member states and allies of Washington. 

The USA, he said, encouraged North Macedonia and Bulgaria to continue their dialogue based on facts. Washington had received assurances from Bulgaria that they wanted North Macedonia to join the EU, Escobar said. mr/