President Erdoğan held a joint press conference with North Macedonian Prime Minister Mickoski
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski of North Macedonia held a joint press conference at Dolmabahçe Presidential Office in Istanbul.
Noting that they discussed ways to further deepen the bilateral relations between Türkiye and North Macedonia, President Erdoğan said: “With the joint declaration we have just signed, we established the mechanism of the High Level Cooperation Council. Inshallah, I would like to visit Skopje for the first meeting of our council in the upcoming period.”
“The steps that can be taken to improve the commercial and economic relations between our countries constituted an important part of our talks today. Our companies are successfully continuing their activities in North Macedonia with investments approaching $2 billion in many fields, especially in sectors such as banking, health, education, tourism, renewable energy. We continue our efforts to double our trade volume, which nearly reached $1 billion last year, in the first stage. Updating the Free Trade Agreement between our countries will undoubtedly contribute to these efforts,” President Erdoğan said.
“THE BALKANS SHOULD BE AN AREA OF COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT”
“We also thoroughly discussed our military relations and joint projects in the defense industry,” President Erdoğan said. “Türkiye was among the first countries to recognize the independence of North Macedonia. We, together with our NATO ally North Macedonia, are two friendly countries that directly contribute to peace and stability in the Balkans. Over the past 30 years, our relations have become as strong as the Stone Bridge in Skopje. Today, we continue our work with the belief that the Balkans should be an area of cooperation and development, as opposed to an area of competition.”
“One of the most important bonds between our two countries is undoubtedly the Turkish community in North Macedonia. Our brothers and sisters who migrated from North Macedonia to Anatolia in the past have made great contributions to our country and have consolidated the foundation of the cultural bond between us and the geography of North Macedonia. For this reason, during our meeting with Mr. Prime Minister, we specifically talked about the contributions of the Turkish community in North Macedonia to the relations between the two countries. We are determined to jointly fight against FETÖ, which targets this long-standing friendship,” President Erdoğan said.
Stating that they also exchanged views on global and regional issues, particularly Ukraine and Gaza, President Erdoğan said: “We underscored our support for the ongoing negotiations for peace in Ukraine. With regard to the liberation of Palestine from occupation, we reaffirmed our shared will for a two-state solution.”
At the signing ceremony held before the press conference, President Erdoğan and Prime Minister Mickoski of North Macedonia signed the joint political declaration on the establishment of the High Level Cooperation Council between Türkiye and North Macedonia.
