Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is paying Wednesday an official visit to Macedonia. The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia and Russia are expected to sign a plan on consultations. According to the information of the Macedonian MFA, a cooperation agreement between Macedonia and Russia will be signed during the visit of a high-ranking Macedonian delegation to Moscow by the end of this year. Russian Minister Lavrov is expected to bring copies of archive documents of the end 19th and early 20th century that have great historical and national significance for the country.

Of the archive documents, three are notes about the life and activities of Krste Petkov Misirkov while he was in Russia. Some of them concern the mobilization of Macedonian students in Russia for the Macedonian cause. There is also a report by the Russian consul to Bitola about the Krusevo Uprising, letters exchanged between the Russian representative offices in Istanbul and Skopje about the Macedonian nation and the Macedonians’ resolve to unite into a single state, as well as a copy of the conversation of the Russian Tsar with Russian diplomat Orlov about the distinction of the Macedonian nation.

Minister Lavrov is coming to Macedonia after seven years within the framework of his 3-day Balkan tour which will also encompass Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia. The Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed that Minister Lavrov insisted to visit Ohrid as the cradle of the Cyrillic alphabet.

He will arrive in Ohrid from Montenegro where he told the newspaper Pobjeda of Podgorica with regard to the Balkan countries’ bid to join NATO that Moscow respected the countries’ right to decide on their own their systems of security and membership of military alliances. According to Minister Lavrov, Russia’s position to NATO’s enlargement is well-known.

“NATO’s enlargement by inertia is a completely new situation. Now that the world is no longer bipolar and there are no longer two military blocs, that does not contribute to the security of the Alliance’s new member states,” Minister Lavrov said.

The Russian Foreign Minister believes that the Balkans is stabilizing and developing well.

“The good neighborly relations are being renewed as well despite the threat of repetitions,” he said.

According to Lavrov, Russia is willing to develop bilateral relations with all Balkan countries and is interested in full normalization of the situation in the region, while its strategic partnership with Serbia is not directed against anyone.

He is going to discuss in Macedonia the possibilities for promoting trade and investments between the two countries, in view of the fact that the Russian investments in Montenegro last year totaled 120 million dollars. Lavrov’s visit coincides with the 150th anniversary of the opening of the first Russian diplomatic mission in this part of the Balkans – the consulate in Bitola.

Lavrov is set to meet his Macedonian counterpart Antonio Milososki, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and President Gjorge Ivanov. He is also going to visit the Church of St. Bogorodica Perivlepta, the Gallery of Icons and the Church of St. Sofia in Ohrid.