North Macedonia PM: Working with Russia ‘Not an Alternative to EU’

Zoran Zaev told a Russia-North Macedonia economic forum in Skopje on Thursday that the event and the reactivation of an inter-governmental commission on trade with Russia do not mean that his country is seeking an alternative to Euro-Atlantic integration.

"This is not a message. We are working on improving our standards. We are doing everything to bring benefits to our people," Zaev said when asked by reporters about whether this was Skopje's reaction after last month's failure by the European Council to grant a start date for his country's EU accession talks.

"There is no alternative to the EU and NATO," Zaev said, adding that at the same time the country has to improve economic ties with countries like Russia and China, as well as Asian and Middle Eastern countries where there is much untapped potential.

Zaev also stated that North Macedonia, like neighbouring Serbia, is not going to join the EU's economic sanctions against Russia, which Brussels instigated over the Ukrainian crisis.

On Thursday he addressed the forum and received a Russian delegation led by Russia's Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Aleksei Gruzdev.

The forum, the first after a five-year pause, continues on Friday in North Macedonia's lakeside town of Ohrid with a meeting of the joint inter-governmental commission.

Since the last one, political relations between the two countries have suffered setbacks due to suspicions of alleged Russian involvement in North Macedonia's political crisis.

The North Macedonian government has estimated that trade with Russia has somewhat stagnated and in the first half of this year only represented 1.1 per cent of the country's overall foreign trade exchange.

Participants at the forum on Thursday agreed to...