Today, President of Latvia Egils Levits, who is currently in Skopje with an official visit, met with President of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski to discuss current security situation in Europe, NATO’s future strategy and deepening of bilateral ties between Latvia and North Macedonia.
Heads of Latvia and North Macedonia discussed country’s progress towards the European Union. President Levits praised reforms implemented by North Macedonia and underlined that Latvia fully supports launching of European Union accession negotiations with the Western Balkan nation in near future.
‘Latvia has been advocating for North Macedonia in the EU. We have always supported EU enlargement towards Western Balkans. Country has made good progress in terms of reforms needed to become a member of the EU, which means that accession negotiations can start real soon. North Macedonia must eventually become an EU member state,’ President of Latvia noted.
Presidents of Latvia and North Macedonia then moved on to current security situation in Europe and Russian invasion of Ukraine. North Macedonia has joined EU sanctions against Russia, said President Pendarovski, while Egils Levits stressed that it is not only territorial integrity of Ukraine that is at stake here as Ukrainians continue to fight for the whole democratic Europe. ‘Latvia supports Ukraine’s efforts to win. We have demonstrated our support by sending military assistance worth a third of our defence budget to Ukraine. We believe other countries should also continue providing vital support,’ Egils Levits said.
On the future strategy of NATO, President Levits congratulated North Macedonia on accession and underlined that Latvia is ready to continue active consultations within the Alliance. ‘North Macedonia is a strategic NATO ally in the Western Balkans. We appreciate your readiness to join NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Latvia. We must work together on NATO’s future strategy based on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,’ President said.
Egils Levits and Stevo Pendarovski also discussed deeper trade relations between Latvia and North Macedonia, as well as future cooperation within international organisations.
President Pendarovski confirmed North Macedonia’s intentions to deepen economic, cultural and other ties between Baltic and Balkan regions.
