NATO’s Stoltenberg visits Skopje as alliance clears way for N. Macedonia membership

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is in Skopje for a two-day visit before North Macedonia officially becomes the alliance’s 30th member by the end of the year.

Stoltenberg arrived on Sunday afternoon and will meet the Balkan country’s leaders on Monday, AP said.

NATO member states and North Macedonia signed an agreement last February, clearing the way for membership. The move came after North Macedonia and Greece inked a deal in June last year that ended a decades-long bilateral dispute.

Athens had blocked its neighbor’s membership to NATO since 2008, objecting that the name Macedonia implied territorial claims on Greece.