Athens, 7 January 2022 (MIA) – A series of meetings and visits at the highest level, some of them considered historic, cooperation agreements, efforts to deepen cooperation – these were all the things that marked 2021 as a good year for Macedonian-Greek relations, which finally seem to be getting back to normal and improving. Ice has been broken long ago, trust has increased, and at the same time Greece remains a strong supporter of North Macedonia’s European perspective, analyzes MIA’s correspondent from Athens.

The President, Prime Minister, Assembly Speaker, the Foreign Minister, Deputy PMs, government ministers visited Athens on multiple occasions, officially or on conferences, and there were also visits from Athens to Skopje which were always positive and constructive.

The first official business by President Stevo Pendarovski in early October was a historic one. He was received with all state honors by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, and he had a series of meetings, including a meeting with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis. This is the first visit of its kind between both countries, given that not a single president of our country visited Athens, nor has a Greek president visited Skopje.

The messages from these meetings were that Greece strongly supports North Macedonia’s European perspective, that both countries are dedicated to respecting and implementing the Prespa Agreement based on the pacta sunt servanda principle, as well as the opportunity to deepen the cooperation and invest sincere and mutual efforts to bring the two countries and peoples closer together.

In an interview with MIA, at the end of the two-day official visit to Greece, the first of its kind, the president said that it showed that the bilateral relations between both countries are entering a normal course, even though it’s just the start of a longer process in which he expects ‘the dynamic of political relations to continue developing’.

“At the meetings with the PM and the president, I said that I would like for these visits to become routine, because when they do, it’ll mean that bilateral relations have become normalized, which they’re not, yet. PM Mitsotakis called them ‘still fresh wounds’ in certain segments of the political spectrum of the Hellenic Republic. There is resistance, there are still people who don’t believe in the Prespa Agreement despite its obvious benefits and positive effects for the development of the country. This resistance was huge in Greece for years, especially in the regions close to our border. It’ll take time and re-education of the new generations, which should be raised in the spirit of European solidarity and tolerance,” Pendarovski told MIA.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou in her speech at the dinner in honor of Pendarovski, referring to the importance of the first official visit of the President of the Republic of North Macedonia to Greece, stressed that "an important chapter has already opened in our bilateral relations, which gives a new impulse”.

Talat Xhaferi paid his first visit to Athens as President of the Assembly, who two weeks after Pendarovski's visit, participated in the Conference of Speakers of the Parliaments of the Council of Europe member states, and met with the Speaker of the Greek Parliament Konstantinos Tasoulas on the sidelines.

At the meeting, the first at this level, Tasoulas and Xhaferi discussed the deepening and intensification of cooperation, for which both parties expressed a willingness and readiness in statements after the meeting.

Tasoulas stressed that the parliaments they chair should show the way to improve relations between the two countries, and Xhaferi said that this first meeting should be an incentive for more intensive mutual communication and cooperation.

In a statement to MIA, the President of the Assembly of North Macedonia commented that the meeting is in the domain of a historic meeting, "given that in the previous three decades at the parliamentary level there was no official communication in terms of cooperation between the two parliaments." that Tassoulas expressed "readiness to invest himself in efforts to open negotiations with the EU."

On the other hand, Zoran Zaev served as Prime Minister twice in Athens, in May, at the Delphi Economic Forum and two months later at the Economist conference.

During the Delphi Economic Forum, Zaev was accompanied by Government Ministers in Greece, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Dimitrov, who also participated in a panel discussion.

The then Prime Minister was received by his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the visit and the meeting coincided with the planned start of Greek tourism and the opening of the borders to North Macedonia, after a 14-month break.

The day before the opening of the borders, and immediately after the meeting with Mitsotakis, Zaev, through Facebook, announced that the border crossing Evzoni will be opened for all citizens of North Macedonia who have a document related to Covid-19.

In an interview with MIA, the then Prime Minister explained that the news about the borders was announced directly at the meeting with Mitsotakis, while regarding the political part of the talks, opportunities for cooperation were discussed, especially in economy and energy, and Zaev in the conversation with the correspondent from Athens, revealed that the Greek Prime Minister has developed several positive ideas that could help lift the Bulgarian blockade.

At the beginning of the year and while Greece was under strict quarantine, Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani visited Athens, was received by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, with whom he signed three Memoranda of Understanding: in the field of civil protection, diplomatic education and memorandum between "Invest North Macedonia" and "Enterprise Greece", and met with the alternative head of Greek diplomacy Miltiadis Varvitsiotis.

North Macedonia and Greece sign Natural Gas Interconnector Agreement 

During the second visit of the former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to Athens in early July when he participated in the Economist conference and led our delegation, which included Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Coordination of Economic Affairs and Investment Fatmir Bytyqi, as well as Minister for economy Kreshnik Bekteshi, the agreement between North Macedonia and Greece for development of the interconnection for natural gas between the two countries was signed.

The agreement between the two governments was signed on July 9 by Bekteshi and the Greek Minister of Environment and Energy Costas Skrekas, who said it was an important agreement for both countries and the region.

Bekteshi stressed that it is a big step towards improving the energy infrastructure of our country, the interconnector will contribute to diversification of supply, will give North Macedonia the opportunity to supply natural gas to its northern neighbors, and has special importance for relations with Greece.

Skrekas said that the intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the pipeline, which will start from Nea Mesimvria and end in Gevgelija, will achieve two things: it will upgrade Greece's geopolitical role, as it will further strengthen its role "as an energy crossroads, which from our national system will transfer natural gas to North Macedonia ", and on the other hand our country will have the opportunity to reduce the impact on the environment, to achieve the energy transition and gradually, to replace the more polluting forms of production utilization of electricity with natural gas.

Two months after the signing of the agreement at the political level, followed a cooperation agreement for development and construction of the natural gas interconnector between the Executive Director of National Energy Resources (NER) Bajram Rexhepi and the Chief Executive Officer of the Greek National Gas Transmission Operator DESFA Maria Rita Galli.

The agreement establishes and defines the principles of cooperation, conditions and time frame for the construction of the pipeline, which is planned to be 123 km long and to extend from Nea Mesimvria to Negotino, through Gevgelija and to connect the two national transmission systems of natural gas.

The initial capacity will be 1.5 billion cubic meters per year, with the possibility of expanding to 3 billion cubic meters per year, studies have been conducted in order for the pipeline to have appropriate specifications for transport of green hydrogen, and the project is estimated to cost about EUR 110 million.

Speaking at the Southeast Europe Energy Forum 2021, on the sidelines of which the agreement was signed, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi stressed that the construction of the interconnector with Greece will give us the opportunity to position ourselves as a regional center for gas supply to the countries in the region of Southeast Europe.

Minister of Environment and Physical Planning Naser Nuredini told MIA after his participation at the Delphi Economic Forum that there is great potential for cooperation with Greece and emphasized the importance of the interconnector, but elaborated that it is only one project that’s being worked on, adding that with they’re discussing various approaches of managing hard waste with the Greek government, as well as discussing the circular economy and the waters of the Lakes Prespa and Dojran and the Vardar River.

The conferences in Greece, both in Athens and Thessaloniki, were attended by the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov, while 2021 was marked by visits in the "reverse direction", i.e., from Athens to Skopje.

At the end of August, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Deputy Foreign Minister Kostas Fragogiannis visited North Macedonia at the invitation of Minister Bujar Osmani, and a month and a half later, ten days after Pendarovski's visit to Athens, the alternative Greek Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis left for Skopje.

There was cooperation in other areas as well, Greece donated vaccines to North Macedonia, helped fight the pandemic, and relations were improved in defense and military cooperation.

Both countries signed a program for bilateral military support in 2021 which included help and support for the questions related to army integration in NATO structures, training and educations in centers of the Greek army, cooperation in a variety of subjects of mutual and military interest, and a series of common drills for parachuting and diving from aircrafts, underwater diving etc. were conducted. The Greek F-16s flew over our airspace.

Last year also marked the fact that North Macedonia officially received its first ambassador to Greece, after the establishment of diplomatic relations under the Prespa Agreement, after the Liaison Office in Athens became an embassy.

At a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Athens on June 15, Ambassador Lidija Boskovska presented her credentials to Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

MIA reported that during the audience, which took place in a cordial atmosphere, Sakelaropoulou and Boskovska discussed bilateral relations, cooperation, economy, pandemic, but also tourism.

Last year, Greece intensively emphasized its support for the European perspective of North Macedonia, a support that remains strong and unchanged, while the opposition SYRIZA stressed the importance of the Prespa Agreement, which was especially emphasized by the current Greek government after the announcement that Zoran Zaev will step down as prime minister.

Sanja Ristovska