"The U.S. is determined to isolate the conflict in former Yugoslavia and to prevent it from spreading to Macedonia," General Wesley Clark from the U.S. General Staff said at the Senate's Foreign Committee.
"The U.S. troops in Macedonia," Clark asserted, "show the interest of the U.S. and the West in maintaining stability in the region."
The Macedonian parliamentary delegation of the coalition of the "Alliance for Macedonia," led by Tito Petkovski, had a meeting in Sofia yesterday with the parliamentary group of the democratic left-wing, led by Krasimir Premjanov, and which is in the majority in the Bulgarian Parliament.
The representatives of the two delegations agreed that the stances concerning the language and the nation should not be an obstacle in the development of the cooperation.
Following the meeting, the representative of the Bulgarian Socialist party Gjorgji Prvenov stated that the visit would contribute to the unblocking of the agreed development of relations between Macedonia and Bulgaria, by suppressing the "emotional questions and differences surrounding the language and nation."
Tito Petkovski stated that all the issues burdening the relations between the two countries were raised in the meeting. "Foremost, that is the language in which the mutual agreements will be signed, the sensitivity of Bulgaria concerning the existence of the Macedonian national minority in Bulgaria," Petkovski said.
He added that according to the beginning of the talks, it could be said that "all the questions will be opened in a much more relaxed fashion."
The new head of the UNPREDEP mission in Macedonia, the Polish diplomat Henrik Sokolski, is due to arrive in Macedonia next week, Makpress reports.
Henrik Sokalski (59) is a professional diplomat with 35 years of experience in the state and international foreign affairs service. He spent most of his long professional career in specializing the work at the UN.
On the 24th of last month, the UN Secretary-General appointed Sokalski head of the UNPREDEP mission in Macedonia, at the level of Assistant Secretary General.
The purpose of the existence of the Committee for inter-ethnic relations in Parliament is to help the minorities in Macedonia integrate, but not to assimilate within the state, and to also help in the creation of an atmosphere in which national belonging will not present an obstacle in the realization of the national rights.
This was said at yesterday's meeting between the members of the Committee and the representative of the American Association "Search for common grounds," Aaron Frenkel, the former U.S. congressman and legal advisor from Washington Luciene Nec and professor Landrum Bolin from the University in Indiana, Makpress reports.
The members of the Committee informed the guests that preparations are being made to form an appropriate body, made up of 13 members, which would review the requests and demands of certain ethnic groups, however, due to the slow procedure in Parliament, none of their themes or proposals have reached the daily agenda in the Macedonian Parliament.
The presidency of the Republic Community of Cultural events of the Macedonian Muslims assessed in Ohrid yesterday that the PDP letter sent to the Council of Europe presents yet another anti-Macedonian pamphlet.
"Sadly, the great appetites of the political parties of the Albanians, are blind to the enormous positive step that has been made in Macedonia in terms of the equality of the nationalities, in particularly the Albanian nationality."
This organization feels that the majorization of the Albanian population through the Islamic religion presents one of the important factors for the negation of the Macedonian national identity of the Macedonian Muslims."
A couple of days before the start of the Congress of the Socialist party of Macedonia, on June 17 in Shtip, the situation in the municipal leadership is so tense that there are two parallel presidencies. Due to the problems, the police had to get involved, and the court was forced to decide which leadership is legal.
The bottom line in the conflict is that the old leadership supports the to-date president Kiro Popovski, while the new one wants dr. Jovan Lazarov to take his place.
This year's wheat crop is expected to reach some 360,000 tones. According to experts, this should exceed last year's record of 340,000 tones of bread grain. Of these quantities, some 160,000 tones are in the state-owned, and over 200,000 tones are in the individual sector. The purchase of the market wheat surplus should reach over 200,000 tones.
Nevertheless, as it was said at yesterday's joint session of the Group for the mill-baking industry and the Group for agriculture within the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, these record expectations do not please the producers, or the processors. Even now, problems are being announced in the provision of storage space for the crop and there is great uncertainty concerning payments for the purchased crop. The storages are full with unprocessed stocks of wheat from last year's harvest and the quantities of wheat that the state imported.
According to analyses and insights, by the beginning of the harvest, which is expected to start toward the end of this month, the storehouses of the mill-baking companies will have over 105,000 tones of wheat in stock and 7,750 tones of flour, which is a precedent. Based on the available data on the monthly consumption of 23,050 tones of wheat, i.e. 13,802 tones of flour, these reserves are sufficient to satisfy the needs for the next five-six months.
In view of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Kazakhstan, today the embassy of the Republic of Macedonia in Bonn was visited by the Minister of Construction of Kazakhstan Amalbeg Chanov, the Assistant Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Sadik Zhumataevich Abasev and the ambassador of Kazakhstan to Bonn Saguinbeg Tokabaevich Tursunov.
Minister Chanov accepted the invitation of Macedonia ambassador Srdjan Kerim to pay a visit to the Republic of Macedonia during September, this year, whereby he will hold talks in the Macedonian Government and the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, on the issue of concrete Kazakh projects which would also involve construction companies from the Republic of Macedonia.
In January, this year, 779,000 tones of Macedonian goods were transported through the Bulgarian port of Burgas. Seeing that the port is about to be expanded with five new terminals, Burgas could remain an important communications link for the Macedonian companies even after the lifting of the Greek embargo. This was said at yesterday's meeting between the representatives of the business firms from Macedonia and the private insurance company "Surveyance" from Burgas, which was held at the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, and which was also attended by representatives from the Bulgarian Trade-Industrial Chamber.
The guests from "Surveyance" offered to play a mediating role in the issuing of permits for the control of the quality of goods for export and re-export in and outside Bulgaria. This firm works according to British standards and issues documents that are valid upon arbitration abroad.
The stock company "Dojran Lake" from Nov Dojran is quite satisfied with its recent fishing results. Namely, in a matter of fifteen days, over 6.5 tones of fish were caught, mainly carp, which has not happened in a long time. Even 1.5 tones of carp were caught in one day.
On the basis of the founding deposit of 5 million DM, the positive opinion of the People's Bank of Macedonia and the fulfilling of other criteria, the assembly of "Stopanska banka" - Prilep branch made a decision yesterday to make the Prilep branch independent, i.e. to turn it into a separate bank under the name "Pelagoniska banka", stock company, Prilep. The director of the branch Sotir Georgievski was entrusted with being the future director of this independent bank, while Simon Naumovski and Miroslav Markushovski were elected president, and vice-president of the bank's assembly. A Managing and Supervisory committee of "Pelagoniska banka" have also been elected.
(end)