site.btaNATO Secretary General in Skopje: There Is No Military Threat to Any Alliance Member

There is no security threat to the Republic of North Macedonia, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski told a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg here on Tuesday. Stoltenberg is paying a two-day visit to Skopje.

The NATO Secretary General said that he sees no military threat by Russia against any Alliance member country, but NATO follows carefully what Russia is doing. The security in the Western Balkans is of significant importance to NATO, but there is cause for concern in that respect.

In his words, the Alliance observes what is happening and is ready to become active and do what is necessary to protect every ally against a military threat. NATO continues to repeat the message to Russia that the country should abstain from aggressive actions against its neighbours and stop the military aggression against Ukraine. One of the reasons why Russian President Vladimir Putin entered a war was to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO; he wanted NATO to guarantee that it would not expand, but he is getting exactly the opposite: more NATO in Eastern Europe and new members, Finland and Sweden, Stoltenberg noted.

He also said that the Republic of North Macedonia is a valuable ally in NATO, that the Alliance can rely on the country, and that North Macedonia can rely on NATO.

Ahead of the news conference, the NATO Secretary General and Kovacevski held a meeting with the participation of Foreign Affairs Minister Bujar Osmani, Defence Minister Slavjanka Petrovska, and Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski, the government's press service reported.