On 5 June the president of the National Council, Marina Carobbio Guscetti (SP/TI), welcomed the president of the Assembly of North Macedonia and his delegation to Bern. This was the first visit to Switzerland by a president of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia since the country gained its independence. During his official visit to Switzerland, the Assembly’s president, Talat Xhaferi, also met the president of the Council of States, Jean-René Fournier (CVP/VS), the deputy state secretary of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), Krystyna Marty Lang, and the delegate for multilingualism, Nicoletta Mariolini.

​On 5 June, the president of the National Council met the president of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia, Talat Xhaferi. Mr Xhaferi is from the Albanian minority, which makes up 25% of the population of North Macedonia. During their official talks, Ms Carobbio highlighted the close bilateral relations between the two countries, which thrive in large part thanks to the large community of over 60,000 North Macedonians who live and work in Switzerland.

Ms Carobbio congratulated the North Macedonian parliament on its ratification of the Prespa Agreement resolving the country’s differences with Greece over its constitutional name. This agreement opens up new prospects for North Macedonia to join NATO and the EU. It is also a reminder that North Macedonia is a priority country in Swiss development cooperation (SDC and SECO). Switzerland is active in the country in three main areas: democratic governance, economic and labour market development, and structures and environment.

Since 2016 Switzerland has provided technical assistance to the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Projects include the development of an online reservation system for visits to the North Macedonian parliament and civic education activities. Ms Carobbio expressed her pleasure at the success of this technical cooperation between the two countries and her hope that it will continue.

Besides bilateral relations and cooperation between Switzerland and North Macedonia, the issue of linguistic and cultural minorities in both countries was also addressed during the talks. North Macedonia has a new language law permitting the use of Albanian at all levels of state and in parliament. During his various meetings, Mr Xhaferi was informed of Swiss practices regarding multilingualism and bilingualism at the federal, cantonal and communal levels. The North Macedonian delegation went to Biel on 6 June to learn how bilingualism functions there, and also to discuss the Swiss system of dual vocational education and training.

The situation in the Western Balkans was also a topic of discussion during Mr Xhaferi’s official visit. FDFA Deputy State Secretary Krystyna Marty Lang reiterated the importance to Switzerland of stability and development in the Balkans. The Prespa Agreement signed by North Macedonia and Greece on 17 June 2018 is of historical significance because it should lead to more fruitful and stable relations throughout the whole of the Western Balkans.