Macedonian Defence Minister Zoran Jolevski participates Wednesday at the meeting of defence and interior ministers of Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) and Salzburg Forum, as well as Southeast European countries which is held in Vienna.

Jolevski addressing the meeting focused on joint managing the challenges of migration underlined that the Republic of Macedonia largely contributes for closure of the Balkan refugee route emphasizing that the state institutions in the country responded adequately, effectively and coordinately.

In this regard he underscored the aid that Macedonia received from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Serbia as countries that deployed their officers on the northern and southern border in support of the Macedonian police.

He also referred to the next steps that need to be taken in order to maintain stability and security of the region and beyond.

We anticipate that all measures taken by the EU, NATO and countries in this format will produce good results. In this context, we expect intensive engagement and leadership from the European Union, Jolevski said.

Jolevski said that the EU-Turkey treaty should be respected and underlined the need of improvement of coordination and exchange of information and data between Balkan route countries and the need to accelerate the integration process of the region into the EU and NATO.

Challenges of the current migrant crisis show the need of such meetings to be held more frequently, expecting to give new impetus to boosting the cooperation, Jolevski said addressing the defence and interior ministers of 14 European countries, including Macedonian Interior Minister Agim Nuhiu.

Moreover, Jolevski held bilateral meeting with the Austrian Minister of Defence Hans Peter Doskozil on the sidelines of the meeting.