Turkey, Macedonia sign free zone agreement

BURSA (A.A) - February 2, 2012 - Turkey and Macedonia signed on Thursday a memorandum of understanding including free zone agreement. The two countries signed the agreement during Turkey-Macedonia Trade and Investment Forum in the northwestern province of Bursa. Also, Bursa Chamber of Commerce and Macedonia Chamber of Commerce signed a cooperation protocol on the sidelines of the meeting. During the meeting, Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said Macedonia had fulfilled NATO accession conditions in 2008 and the EU had ensured visa liberalization to Macedonia in 2009. Gruevski said the EU told Macedonia that it had fulfilled all preconditions to launch accession talks, however his country could become a member of neither NATO nor EU due to political problems with Greece. However, Macedonia was doing everything it could to overcome that problem, Gruevski said. Gruevski also said that he believed that there would be no problems before Macedonia's EU and NATO membership after the problem was solved.