Matthew Lawson: Half of our investments in the entire Western Balkans are in Macedonia

The British Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia, Matthew Lawson, gave his opinion on the strategic partnership and the Intergovernmental Agreement – ​​what this means for relations between Britain and North Macedonia.

"I think this is a truly historic moment in our bilateral relationship between Britain and Macedonia. As you heard from the Prime Ministers, we announced a strategic partnership within which a government-to-government agreement is being signed that sets out the terms for greater trade from the United Kingdom to the country," Ambassador Lawson stressed.

He emphasized that the reason we are doing this is that we have a Trade Agreement with you signed 5 years ago, but there was a view on both sides that it was an appropriate time to reach a Strategic Partnership for all the good work we are doing and to make additional progress.

"What citizens will see is even closer cooperation with the United Kingdom on important issues, as NATO partners we train your armed forces for joint participation in NATO, we have fantastic cooperation in all areas, from global affairs to foreign policy, the Minister of Education will be in London this week at the World Education Forum, so we see an opportunity for cooperation in education, culture and of course deepening our cooperation in the fight against organized crime and migration," said Matthew Lawson.

“Indeed, I’m saving the best for last, as your second largest investor, according to your data, around half of our investments across the Western Balkans are in Macedonia and this is part of the government-to-government agreement to accelerate and deepen the economic and trade partnership already established. “We as the UK are a free-trading nation and we think this will give it momentum – we’re working hard to form a British Business Association, we have a fantastic list of businesses here who have already invested and who want to deepen our relationship,” Lawson said.

The Government-to-Government Agreement that we will sign this week in the United Kingdom is part of that wider partnership and we hope that this will further stimulate hundreds of millions of pounds of investment of importance to the British economy and hundreds of millions of pounds of importance to your economy, which I am sure citizens will see, stressed Ambassador Lawson.