Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski informed NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels yesterday about the incidents in the Lerin (Florina) region, Greece. NATO Spokesman James Appathurai stated at a press conference, “the Secretary General has no position on this issue nor does he intend to raise this issue before the allies”.

Prime Minister Gruevski also met with EU Special Envoy for Security and Foreign Policy Javier Solana and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Walker in Brussels yesterday. “At all meetings, I raised the issue of the detaining of Macedonian journalists, which was a consequence of the incidents that broke out due to the Greek Army’s military drills in northern Greece, which disturbed the population. These are bad precedents, which Greece definitely could have avoided,” Gruevski stated. The Macedonian prime minister stressed that this information was received with concern at all meetings. The NATO secretary general told Gruevski that he would convey this information to the NATO ambassadors at their regular meeting.