Minister of Defense Fatmir Besimi and the Chief of ARM's General Staff, Major General Goranco Koteski held talks Thursday with the ambassadors of the Netherlands and Turkey - Marriet Schuurman and Gurol Sokmensuer respectively.

Talks focused on sharing information about the forthcoming activities in relation to NATO integration with the former and current NATO Contact Point Embassies in Macedonia. The Dutch embassy served as a NATO contact point embassy from 2009 to 2012, whereas the Turkish embassy took over the role in the beginning of 2013.

Minister Besimi thanked the embassy of the Netherlands for its excellent support and cooperation established with Macedonia and the Ministry of Defense while welcoming the two-year mandate of the Turkish embassy as a new NATO Contact Point Embassy in the country.

Talking to his interlocutors, Besimi expressed readiness to further boost the cooperation with Turkey in a bid Macedonia to become more visible in NATO.

The minister also presented this year's activities for which Turkish support would be needed, MoD said in a press release.

Interlocutors discussed the importance of Euro-Atlantic integration of regional countries in providing sustainable peace and stability taking into consideration the outstanding issues in the region. An emphasis was put on speeding up the Euro-Atlantic integration, which is essential not only for the countries in the region, but also for NATO.