Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help strengthen the UK’s relationship with North Macedonia.

The UK maintains a strong relationship with North Macedonia. We work closely together bilaterally as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and look forward to hosting the government of North Macedonia this autumn at the Berlin Process summit. On 16 May we announced a new bilateral strategic partnership supporting closer co-operation on areas including economic growth, defence and security and tackling irregular migration. On 22 May, the UK and North Macedonia signed a landmark Government-to-Government Partnership, unlocking up to £5 billion in UK Export Finance support for infrastructure projects. The Prime Minister met Prime Minister Mickoski in May. The Foreign Secretary met with Foreign Minister Mucunski in July.