23 May 2019 - Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev traveled to Podgorica on Thursday, 23rd May 2019 for a two-day official return visit to Montenegro at the invitation of the Prime Minister, Duško Marković.
During the visit, a joint session of the Government of Montenegro and the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia will be organised, after which a number of bilateral documents will be signed, and the Business Forum Montenegro - North Macedonia, with the participation of the Prime Ministers, ministers and businessmen of the two countries.
Prime Minister Marković was an official visit to the Republic of North Macedonia on October 16 and 17, 2017. On that occasion, the Prime Ministers Marković and Zaev concluded that between the two friendly states there are no open or unresolved issues, that the relations are excellent and that they are developing for the benefit of the citizens of both countries and that they can and should represent an example in the whole region of the Western Balkans. They also announced intensification of economic cooperation.
At the session that took place during mid-February, the Government of Montenegro passed the Draft Law on the Ratification of the Protocol on the Accession of the Republic of North Macedonia to NATO and sent it to Parliament for adoption under the shortened procedure.
The rationale of the proposed law states that, by reaching a historic agreement with Greece on the new name in June 2018, the integration of the Republic of North Macedonia into NATO, after many years of stagnation, marked significant progress and at the NATO Summit in July 2018, Macedonia was invited to start accession talks with the Alliance. With the adoption of constitutional changes in the Parliament and the ratification of the Prespa Agreement by the Greek Parliament, the conditions for the signing of the Protocol on the Accession of the Republic of North Macedonia to NATO were created at the North Atlantic Council meeting (NAC) on 6 February 2019.
