Macedonia and Albania will condemn any incident that could mar neighbourly ties and urge perpetrators to be tried by institutions of the system. Both countries share the same European vision and Albania supports Macedonia's NATO membership bid, countries' foreign ministers - Nikola Poposki and Edmond Haxhinasto - told a press conference in Skopje on Friday.

"We want to see Macedonia making a progress toward NATO integration and the EU. The same refers to the countries in the region without an exception. Firstly, they have to integrate amongst themselves and then into these organisations," Haxhinasto said.

Commenting the burning of a Macedonian flag in Albania, he said he had seen how an Albanian flag was set of fire stressing that such incidents must not happen. "They must not threaten the excellent relations between Macedonia and Albania - they must be condemned and the perpetrators to be brought before justice."

"We've called on all political factors to show maturity, calmness and support to institutions in solving these cases," the Albanian FM stated.

Minister Poposki said he shared his counterpart's opinion.

"Any act that aims at disrupting the excellent cooperation in the region and offending our friends or neighbours in Macedonia and Albania must be condemned and tackled by institutions of the system. We share a joint future in EU and NATO and share the same values. All acts with the purpose of threatening this goal and the future we want to build together should be tackled in this manner," FM Poposki underlined.

Answering journalist questions involving the Macedonian minority in Albania, FM Haxhinasto claimed that his country respected the conventions for the protection of human rights.

"Albania is a fine example on respecting minority rights and related conventions. This was confirmed by a recent monitoring mission of  of the Council of Europe," Haxhinasto claimed despite the fact that all minority parties in Albania have formed a joint coalition and boycotted the latest census. They said they were prevented from stating their national origin.

Asked whether minorities were denied the right to self-determination, the FM said the information was wrong and stressed that the Albanian census was carried out in line with all European standards.

"All citizens had the chance to state their nationality freely, the census is being processed and results are expected in the summer. Claims that the census faced problems when it comes to the minorities to state their ethnic origin are incorrect and have nothing to do with reality," the Albanian Minister noted.

Asked when Albania would recognise Macedonia under its constitutional name, Haxhinasto said Tirana recognised Macedonia's constitutional name in bilateral relations, while in international relations his country had to abide by the established policy on the matter.

FMs Poposki and Haxhinasto at their meeting also discussed economic cooperation, namely infrastructure and energy and the importance of Corridor 8.