The President of the Republic of Kosovo began today his to-day visit to the Republic of Macedonia, upon an invitation extended to him by President George Ivanov.
During the visit, he will be accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture of Kosovo Blerand Stavileci, the Acting Ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo to Macedonia Skender Durmishi and his associates and business representatives.
At the beginning of his visit, President Pacolli was received by President Ivanov with state honours. Both presidents first listened to the intonation of both countries’ national hymns and than paraded in front of the Macedonian National Guard.
Thereinafter, after an eye-to-eye meeting, residents Pacolli and Ivanov chaired the meeting between two countries’ delegations, where they discussed an array of issues, starting from political cooperation up to economic growth.
Presidents stated that both Kosovo and Macedonia were strategic partners, given the very good relations between the two countries in every field and their joint journey towards speediest integration into international institutions.
Following the meeting between delegations, in the presence of presidents Pacolli and Ivanov, the Minister of Agriculture of Kosovo and the Minister of Agriculture of Macedonia Lupco Dimovski signed an agreement of cooperation in the field of agriculture and other related sectors.
At a press conference held after the meeting, President Pacolli and President Ivanov spoke of the meeting between them:
President Ivanov: First allow me to congratulate Mr. Pacolli on his election as President of Kosovo. I wish that we will build good and friendly personal relations with him, just like with his predecessors, which are important to both our countries, because good personal relations contribute to good interstate relations.
The visit is a clear signal of our readiness to further cooperation between the Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Kosovo. We had constructive discussions with Mr. Pacolli and we exchanged opinions on bilateral relations and regional issues of common interest.
Republic of Macedonia supports the advancement and the growth of our neighbouring countries and wishes further success to both our neighbours and to the Republic of Kosovo.
We are willing to support and contribute to all processes in Kosovo, based on our experience and national interest. Macedonia is interested to cooperate with Kosovo on all fronts. Border demarcation was a major achievement in terms of cooperation between our countries so far, which contributes to boosting security, stability and prosperity in the region. By resolving these issues, we have set an example for the countries of the region of ways to resolve bilateral issues in a European fashion.
We consider Euro-Atlantic integration a critical issue. We expressed our readiness to assist Kosovo in making the necessary institutional and public administration and judicial and other reforms. I believe we should keep on expanding our cooperation in this regard, so as to leave behind a good foundation for the future generations on which they can build further.
President Pacolli: I had a very friendly and open meeting with President Ivanov. Once again, we found that we were on the right track. We do find a good neighbour in Macedonia. It was a good start. We discussed all pending issues. We have established diplomatic relations on the right time and now we will start to cooperate for the future of our citizens.
We have no such problems that would make us deal with the past now. Our task now task is to implement agreements that we have signed. Ten agreements have been signed and today we signed another one, the eleventh. Other agreements will be signed in the near future on justice. Accordingly, we have opened a new front of engagement.
I thanked President Ivanov for his willingness and positive energy to make sure that a civilised life is lead in the region, as our people deserve it.
Macedonia has made gigantic steps towards Euro-Atlantic integration. Kosovo is also facing some problems on which it is working intensively at present.
A topic of today discussions was assistance that Macedonia can provide to Kosovo in this regard. We are lucky that both our countries are multiethnic states and we that we share the same belief that we can only move towards Euro-Atlantic integrations by respecting our community members.
We discussed creation of a new market environment, because the market is small for Macedonians in Macedonia and the one in Kosovo is small for Kosovars. We should create a larger market for our economic operators.
We have a common understanding concerning the need to facilitate the free movement of people, ideas and capital.
I informed President Ivanov that Kosovo has entered a dialogue with Serbia. Kosovo will always discus any issue that can help better the lives of our people. We should open the borders to the people of good will, to the peace-loving people, and close them to criminal gangs and those who obstruct the growth of our societies.
We discussed traditional meetings between presidents of the region and agreed to hold more meetings between our presidents, prime ministers and business communities more frequently.
Others will respect us just as we will respect them. Accordingly, we will move together with pride and join the large European family, which will soon embrace Macedonia and Kosovo.