Prime minister Dusko Markovic arrived in Skopje in an official visit to Macedonia at the invitation of his counterpart Zoran Zaev. After a meeting, the prime ministers pointed out the extraordinary relations between the two countries. Speaking about political developments in Montenegro, Markovic said that our country needed a strong and responsible opposition, and not an idle one who spends state money doing nothing.
Markovic called to mind that 2017 was very successful year for Montenegro.
“There is no more remarkable success than Montenegro’s entry into NATO. An almost equally important success is that Montenegro has managed to balance its finances. We need a 5-6% growth to compensate for lagging behind developed Europe,” Markovic said.
The PM called on the opposition once again to work in the interests of Montenegro.
“We call on them to offer citizens agendas, not divisions, and then there will be more opportunities for them,” Markovic said.
Asked how small Balkan countries can take attention of big players in the global market, Markovic said that today there are no small and big countries on the global stage.
“There are only countries that are able to contribute to progress and to actively participate and contribute to processes and have the capacity to make decisions and implement them. Montenegro, as a small country, is a good example for that,” he said.
Markovic expressed the willingness of the Government of Montenegro to share the knowledge and experience acquired within the EU negotiation process with the Macedonian Government in order to more efficiently integrate the two countries.
Zoran Zaev announced that Macedonia and Montenegro were implementing an enhanced economic cooperation and developing good neighbourly relations for the common Euro-Atlantic future of the entire region.
“The two countries have no outstanding political issues and this is an excellent basis to truly intensify cooperation at all levels, in the interest of the citizens of both countries. We are ready as governments to provide the necessary conditions to encourage our chambers of commerce to develop stronger connections in order to encourage new investment in countries, create new jobs for citizens, to create better paid jobs, which is our common interest. This is possible if we work together to align the standards required by Europe, in order to increase the economic market because we will draw the attention of large European and world companies to our countries,” he said.
Zaev said that the two PMs discussed the expansion of cooperation in education, health, tourism, science and technology and other fields, and that in this context, the possibilities for establishing a direct flight between Macedonia and Montenegro.
