Skopje ready for NATO membership, PM tells Alliance's boss

REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

Zoran Zaev, Macedonia’s Prime Minister, told Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary-General, his country was completely ready to join the Alliance, the Beta news agency.

The two met at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos and confirmed Skopje’s commitment to the NATO membership and the Alliance's encouragement for the move.

“Our country is ready for that significant step as one of Macedonia’s highest priorities at the international scene in 2019,” Zaev told Stoltenberg.

Macedonia’s Parliament has passed necessary amendments to the Constitution enabling the change of the country’s name into North Macedonia, thus removing the obstacles blocking Skopje from Euro-Atlantic integrations for 27 years.

The last step in the process depends on the Greek Parliament which is supposed to vote late on Thursday on the agreement made by Zaev and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras last June.