Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski said that at the meetings he recently had in Washington, in the State department and the National Security Council, Macedonia was praised for its good bilateral relations with the US.

For the first time, at a high level political meeting, the topic number one was o=not the European Union, which I think is the result of their relations and unrelated with Macedonia. The topic was the bilateral cooperation, where Macedonia was praised for our support, such as at certain votes in the United Nations, where we were among the rare countries that supported the US. That is because the US are our strategic partner number one. We have a strategic partnership with them and I think it should also be priority in our foreign policy, just as we recently signed a strategic agreement with the United Kingdom. These are centers outside of Brussels that we turn our eyes toward, Nikoloski said.