Skopje, 12 July 2023 (MIA) — Greece is one of the strongest supporters of North Macedonia's European integration, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said Thursday in Vilnius after his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the sidelines of the NATO Summit.

According to Kovachevski, his meeting with Mitsotakis confirmed the excellent relations between the two countries.

"The Prespa Agreement — which has been singled out by the State Department and other international organizations as an example for solving identity issues and for finding sustainable solutions, and based on which we became a NATO member state — confirmed that solving such a bilateral issue leads to relations between two countries moving in an extremely positive direction," he told a press conference.

Speaking about the Prespa Agreement, Kovachevski said much of it had already been implemented, with only a few documents remaining to be ratified in the Greek Parliament and some obligations remaining for North Macedonia to implement in the area of tax policies.

He added that the authorities in both countries were working on the implementation of these obligations.

As an example of the dedication of the Greek institutions he pointed out the official founding of a Macedonian Language Center in Greece, which had been objected to – but then a Greek court made a clear ruling in favor of its registration.

At the Vilnius meeting, the two prime ministers also discussed larger infrastructure projects related to energy.

"We talked about the gas pipeline and other large facilities being built in the region," Kovachevski said, adding that he had also met other state leaders at the summit and mostly discussed topics related to the economy. mr/