Today (5 February), , at the Ministry of Defence, Minister Vlado Misajlovski met with the newly appointed Ambassador of Italy, Paolo Palminteri, and the Defence Attaché, Colonel Christian Margheriti.
Minister Misajlovski welcomed Ambassador Palminteri and told him that the Ministry is fully committed to the development of Macedonian-Italian defence cooperation as it represents a cooperation between two NATO allies.
“The high level of implementation of the activities of last year’s Bilateral Cooperation Plan and the intensive work of this year’s Plan, which we expect to be signed in March, during the bilateral consultations between the two countries, is proof that we have common goals, that we cooperate at the highest level and that we are fully committed to advancing all areas of defence”, said Misajlovski.
Minister Misajlovski, in the context of the procurement of helicopters from the Italian company Leonardo, asked for support for a joint and transparent resolution of the inherited legal inconsistencies at the highest level.
The Macedonian-Italian decades-long cooperation is visible in many areas of the defence through expert talks and seminars in the field of civil-military cooperation, military aviation, logistics, military police, cybersecurity, transformation of the training and education system, etc. In recent years, members of the two armies have repeatedly participated in large-scale military exercises to develop interoperability, as a key pillar of joint action in strengthening the security of the NATO territory.
The basis for the bilateral cooperation in the field of defence established between the two countries is the Bilateral Military Cooperation Agreement signed in Skopje in 1997.
