The President of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski received today with highest state and military honors the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, who is on an official visit to the Republic of North Macedonia.
As part of the visit, apart from the tet-a-tet meeting between presidents Pendarovski and Zurabishvili, a plenary meeting took place between the official delegations, when an Agreement for waiving visa requirements and a Memorandum of Cooperation in culture were signed.
During the joint press conference, President Zourabichvili said that North Macedonia’s NATO membership is a very powerful signal that the door of the Alliance is truly open, not only in words, but in reality, which gives optimism to all. She is hoping that the same will happen in regard of the opening of the negotiations for EU accession, which will also be an important signal for Georgia, as the EU accession is the goal of both countries.
“We saw that North Macedonia had overcome such obstacle in the past, and I would add, a more serious obstacle on its road toward th NATO membership. I’m convinced that, in the same way, North Macedonia will be able to overcome the obstacle it is facing now. We, the small countries, have shown resilience and have faced many historical events in the past centuries, invasions, occupations, and have learned that one should be resilient, stubborn, and to know in which direction to go,” President Zourabichvili said.
Her colleague and host, President Pendarovski said that this is a historical visit of the highest level, which is happening very briefly after diplomatic relations were established between both countries, on the 16th of February 2019.
“Symbolically, we are connected by a very significant jubilee. Both North Macedonia and Georgia are celebrating 30 years of independence. We are celebrating the gaining of our independence and Georga the reinstation of its independence,” President Stevo Pendarovski noted.
