Greece, North Macedonia Sign 3 Memorandums On Cooperation - Dendias

Faizan Hashmi Published January 15, 2021 | 12:24 AM

Greece and North Macedonia on Thursday signed three memorandums on cooperation in the fields of diplomacy, civil protection and investments, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2021) Greece and North Macedonia on Thursday signed three memorandums on cooperation in the fields of diplomacy, civil protection and investments, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said.

"Today we are taking our relationship one step further by signing three Memoranda. The first on cooperation between the Diplomatic academies of our two Ministries of Foreign Affairs, the second on civil protection and the third on cooperation between the respective entities of our two countries for attracting foreign investments," Dendias said during a joint briefing with his North Macedonian counterpart, Bujar Osmani, in Athens, as quoted by the Greek Foreign Ministry in a press release.

The Greek top diplomat added that "there is still a lot that can be done" to strengthen bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries.

"We need to encourage more trade; we need to encourage more investments. They, in turn, have the potential to bring more jobs, to bring prosperity in both our countries in our overall region," Dendias added.

The Greek minister also said that Athens can be Skopje's "best friend" and supports North Macedonia's efforts to join the European Union. Dendias mentioned that Greece has been "historically advocating" for the enlargement of the EU in the Western Balkans.

Dendias added that Greece recognizes North Macedonia's efforts "in the direction of implementing the name change" since the 2018 Prespa agreement but mentioned that "more progress is needed." In particular, Dendias said that all public institutions and private entities need to adopt new terminology, while all public roads and facilities need to be renamed according to the agreement.

The Prespa agreement stipulated renaming Macedonia to North Macedonia to resolve the dispute which was caused by Greece's concerns that Skopje might have territorial claims over its own region called Macedonia. The dispute had been affecting North Macedonia's ambitions to join the European Union and NATO. North Macedonia became a NATO member in February 2019.