During his visit to North Macedonia Vice Minister V. Umbrasas and his North Macedonian counterpart B. Maksuti also discussed topicalities of NATO and EU integration and regional security and opportunities to strengthen further bilateral cooperation. Deputy Minister of Defence of North Macedonia mentioned the possibility to send soldiers to the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group in Lithuania was being considered. Lithuanian Vice Minister said it would present an excellent opportunity for North Macedonian soldiers to improve interoperability with NATO allies’ forces and to express support to the common deterrence policy. Vice Minister V. Umbrasas also invited his counterpart to visit Lithuania and familiarise with our Armed Forces more closely.
During the visit to North Macedonia Vice Minister V. Umbrasas also attended opening ceremony of national North Macedonia’s Exercise Decisive Strike 2019. Lithuanian Land Force soldiers training in Exercise Decisive Strike 2019 are assigned to the U.S. Pennsylvania National Guard. Representatives of North Macedonia underscored multinationality and importance of the Exercise as the training event enhanced and trained interoperability of NATO allies and NATO partners.
In the course of the visit on June 6–9 Vice Minister V. Umbrasas is taking part in the annual GLOBSEC 2019 Bratislava Forum in Slovakia. During the event Vice Minister will see State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Slovakia Róbert Ondrejcsák to discuss bilateral security cooperation.
Later, on June 10–11 V. Umbrasas will visit Montenegro were meetings with Director General of Directorate for Defence Policy Ivica Ivanovic and Secretary of State for Ministry of Defence of Montenegro Slobodan Filipovic are planned.
North Macedonia has been a EU candidate since 2005. The country has been implementing its NATO Membership Action Plan since 1999. The unsolved issue of its official name had prevented the country from attaining its EU and NATO membership goals until the turning-point last year – on June 17 a bilateral agreement was signed in Prespa which opened the door for the country’s further integration. On 9 February 2019 the North Atlantic Treaty Accession Protocol was signed in Brussels for the Republic of North Macedonia which has to be ratified by all members of the Alliance.
