Israeli Foreign Minister in Visit to Macedonia

The foreign minister is accompanied by an Israeli Foreign Ministry delegation and a group of businessmen interested in increasing cooperation with the Balkan country.

Lieberman, who is also a deputy prime minister, is set to meet with Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki, President Georgi Ivanov, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanovski.

The focus of the visit is expected to be economic cooperation and means to boost tourism to both countries.

In the course of the visit Lieberman will meet with leaders of the Jewish community in Macedonia and discuss the contruction of a Holocaust Memorial Center in Skopje.

Macedonia is currently building a Holocaust Memorial Center in the country's capital which, when finished, will commemorate the several thousand Jews from Macedonia who perished in the Nazi death camps during the Second World War.

Lieberman will also pay a visit to the lake town of Ohrid, where he will be hosted by Minister for Information Society Ivo Ivanovski.

Macedonia and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1995 and since then relations between the two states have been friendly. However, both sides have agreed that much more can be done to boost economic cooperation.