Macedonia’s new government is committed to implementing reforms for easier travel of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Macedonia, visiting Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said here Sunday.
Zaev made the statement when meeting with the Chairman of Council of Ministers of BiH Denis Zvizdic in the capital of BiH Sarajevo.
In Zaev’s view, signing of two agreements on Sunday on cooperation in the field of agriculture opens doors for new markets and IPA funds while the agreement on culture brings improvement of relationship between two states at all possible levels.
“I expect Denis Zvizdic to visit Macedonia this autumn and to define our relations in some other areas. We also want the citizens of our countries to travel with personal cards, not with passports,” Zaev told reporters.
Zvizdic announced the joint government session between BiH and Macedonia, emphasizing the good cooperation between the two governments.
“There are no open issues between BiH and Macedonia, our relations are developing on an upward path, and cooperation is based on important regional issues, hence the European integrations,” Zvizdic told media at the press conference.
Zvizdic stressed that BiH and Macedonia have good economic cooperation, with 300 million KM (around 179 million U.S. dollars) worth of economic cooperation last year, representing a growth of about 10 percent.
“Through dialogue and discussion of our potentials, by the end of 2018, this economic cooperation could be increased by another 100 million KM (around 60 million U.S.dollars)”, Zvizdic added.
In the meantime, Zvizdic announced signing memorandum by the end of the year that will establish a direct airline between the capitals of BiH and Macedonia.
While expressing gratitude for the positive signals from the European institutions in support to BiH’s Euro-integration process, Zaev said that he wishes a lot of success in fulfilling the EU questionnaire so that BiH gets candidate status as soon as possible.
Both officials agreed that dialogue, swift accession to the EU and infrastructure connectivity are needed for a political, economic and security consolidation.
On Sunday evening, PM Zaev will receive the Peace Charter, an award given for the contribution to the establishment of regional cooperation.
