FM Poposki holds bilateral talks in Vilnius
Macedonia's perspectives in terms of Euro-Atlantic integration and an emphasis on the need of respecting the law in international relations in ensuring greater legal international safety were the focal point for Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki at bilateral talks held on the sidelines of the 18th OSCE Ministerial Council in Vilnius, MIA reports.
In addition to bilateral relations, discussions also focused on presenting the ICJ ruling with which it was found that Greece had breached the Interim Agreement by blocking Macedonia's accession to NATO at a summit in Bucharest in 2008, officials of the Macedonian delegation said.
Macedonia's commitment to meeting country's strategic goals was reaffirmed. All of the countries voiced their pledge for confirming Macedonia's European and Euro-Atlantic future.
Minister Poposki on the second day of the Security Forum met with his host and Lithuanian counterpart Audronius Azubalis and with Sweden's FM Carl Bildt.
The Macedonian FM has met for the first time with Greece's new interim foreign minister Stavros Dimas a day after the International Court of Justice ruled in favour of Macedonia. On Tuesday, Poposki on the sidelines of the OSCE forum met with Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, the French and British ministers for Europe, Jean Leonetti and David Lidington respectively as well as with his Danish, Estonian, Latvian and Bulgarian counterparts - Villy Sovndal, Urmas Paet, Edgars Rinkevics and Nikolay Mladenov respectively.
Poposki also met with Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. At the meeting, Mijatovic praised her visit to Macedonia and the activities carried out in connection to the media. She said she would monitor the situation in the country, stressing the importance of personal contacts, which could assist in swiftly addressing challenges in the sphere of media.
The Security Forum ended on Wednesday with the adoption of conclusions and documents in future OSCE activities.
Over 40 foreign ministers and high representatives of 56 OSCE member countries, officials of 12 OSCE partner countries and other international and regional organisations took part at the event. Among the participants were US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The OSCE Ministerial Council is convened once a year serving as the decision-making body of the organisation. Lithuania has taken over the chairmanship from Kazakhstan, which will be handed over to Ireland on January 2012.