Macedonia naming dispute

Alexandros lives in the province of Macedonia in north-western Greece, home to the birthplace of Alexander the Great. Aleksandar is a citizen of North Macedonia, the neighbouring country that emerged from the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991.

The government in North Macedonia has rejected opposition accusations that has downplayed the tough preconditions that Bulgaria has set on the expected launch of EU membership talks and on the gradual solving of open issues.

NATO foreign ministers welcomed North Macedonia as the alliance's newest member on Thursday, ending a long process that included a change to the country's name.

"We welcome North Macedonia as NATO's 30th ally," NATO foreign ministers said in a statement following a video conference, which North Macedonia's minister was part of as a full member.

The Greek Foreign Ministry has congratulated North Macedonia for becoming the 30th member of NATO.

"We congratulate the Republic of North Macedonia that joins NATO as the 30th member of our alliance. We welcome our neighbors to the NATO family and look forward to working together as allies," it tweeted.

North Macedonia on Friday officially became the 30th member of the NATO military alliance.

"North Macedonia is now part of the NATO family, a family of 30 nations and almost 1 billion people. A family based on the certainty that, no matter what challenges we face, we are all stronger and safer together," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement. [AP]
 

Turkey on March 27 congratulated North Macedonia and Albania for opening accession talks with the European Union.

"We congratulate our friends and Allies North Macedonia and Albania on the start of their EU accession negotiations and the EU," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Northern Macedonia will become a NATO member soon, all NATO countries have completed the process of ratifying its membership protocol. This was announced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, presenting his annual report on the state of NATO in 2019.

Turkey on March 17 congratulated North Macedonia on its accession to NATO.

"#NorthMacedonia's accession to @NATO has been ratified by all Allies. Congratulations my friend @Dmitrov_Nikola, welcome to the Alliance!," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Twitter.

North Macedonia on Tuesday cleared the final hurdle to becoming the 30th member of the NATO military alliance after the Spanish Senate ratified its accession.

Spain's office at NATO said that 259 of the 264 senators endorsed the move. The bill was immediately signed by King Felipe and will be submitted to the US State Department for official confirmation within the next 72 hours.