we will be north macedonia, everything will be north macedonia, everything will be north macedonia,ficial will be related with the new name, it's part of the agreement we will confirm the com pletely of the agreement we will confirm the completely on that, everything connected with our macedonian identity will be a line with our identity. the greeks get their identity, we get our identity. it is good enough for the both sides and it will only strengthen the friendship between the two countries. all the discussions about your cultural identity, they also feed into the wider issue of identity in your country, in macedonia. you've been attending this summit of the western balkans here in london to discuss the various ethnic tensions amongst other things that exist in your region. you've got an ethnic albanian population of about 22% of your 2 million people, and there are tensions, aren't there? again, between you and the nationalist opposition. we have conflict between macedonians and albanians in 2001. it's a big conflict, in front of war, we considered war in the society. we passed

nato in asking me about this and i would say very strongly knowing all my friends in scope in north macedonia that they wouldn't all of those who signed the agreement on their minister prime. i would not considered that they have been lured they would consider that indeed this agreement this is the great price for the great reward for their country to both and turn nato and to start negotiations with the european language be fair here because i think it's clear from the public opinion polls in macedonia that the public is quite divided on this issue and we had previous examples in other balkan countries of people sort of being i wouldn't say pressure the alert as the term i used before but kind of prodded towards. that military alliance and that obviously comes on the back of many other far more fraught issues one of them is the issue of ukraine another one is a show of georgia. authorities one a major one was there an issue off later interference and regime change in libya which absolutely appalled not only russia but i think ultimately led to the major immigration crisis in in europe so you

nato in asking me about this and i would say very strongly knowing all my friends in scope in north macedonia that they wouldn't all of those who signed the agreement under or by minute. i would not considered that they have been lured they would consider that indeed this agreement this is the great price for the great reward for their country to both and turn nato and to start negotiations with the european language be fair here because i think it's clear from the public opinion polls in macedonia that the public is quite divided on this issue and we had previous examples in other balkan countries of people sort of being i wouldn't say pressured the alert as the term i used before but kind of prodded towards. that military alliance and that obviously comes on the back of many other far more fraught issues one of them is the issue of ukraine another one is a show of georgia the third one the major one was there an issue off nader interference and regime change in libya which absolutely appalled not only russia but i think ultimately led to the major immigration crisis in in europe so you know

support pay whatever people who belong to the extremes you know on both sides in grief and in north macedonia people who have rejected an agreement that we have taken the press back greenman between the two countries we've taken twenty five years to get where we are it's an amazing agreement so there are modern agreements it's an agreement of deep reconciliation between two countries of course over the name that becomes north methadone over the sharing of identity between two countries but also lots of other elements of of cooperation and so when you say well you used the word country into nato in asking me about this and i would say very strongly knowing all my friends in scope in north macedonia that they wouldn't all of those who signed the agreement under prime minute. i would not consider that they have been lured they would consider that indeed this agreement this is the great price of the great reward for their country to both and turn nato and to start negotiations with the european language be fair here because i think it's clear from the public opinion polls in macedonia that the pu

ship or pay whatever people who belong to the extremes you know on both sides in grief and in north macedonia people who have rejected an agreement that we have taken the press back greenman between the two countries we've taken twenty five years to get where we are it's an amazing agreement so there are modern agreements it's an agreement of deep reconciliation between two countries of course over the name that becomes north methadone over the sharing of identity between two countries but also lots of other elements of of cooperation and so when you say well you used the word country into nato in asking me about this and i would say very strongly knowing all my friends in scope in north macedonia that they wouldn't all of those who signed the agreement under prime minute. i would not considered that they have been lured they would consider that indeed this agreement this is the great price of the great reward for their country to both and turn nato and to start negotiations with the european language be fair here because i think it's clear from the public opinion polls in macedonia that the

yugoslavia public of macedonia can become the 30th member of nato under its new name, the republic of north macedonia. it cannot become a member if it doesn't change its name. that is the simple choice. that's up to the people to make the choice. >> you said earlier today you were interested to know about the president's upcoming meeting with vladimir putin. did he give you any assurances that he would not make concessions to put in -- to vladimir putin, concessions on crimea, and has he ever suggested to you that he believes the u.s. has too many troops in europe? thank you. discuss russia during that dinner. it was also mentioned in my meeting earlier today with president trump and the discussions today. russia will be on the topic for the dinner as of tonight. allies, and that is also stated in the declaration we have agreed today. clearly say that we don't , and we will not recognize the illegal annexation of crimea. this is a unified position of all allies. it's a position which has illegal annexation -- the illegal annexation of crimea is one of the reasons nato has upped its defenses. it's one

public of macedonia can become the 30th country of nato, under its new name, the republic of north macedonia. but it cannot become a member if it doesn't change its name. that's the simple choice. and that's up to the people to make that choice. >> gentlemen in the fifth row? yeah? >> jonathan swann from axios. mr. secretary general, you said earlier today that you were interested to know about the president's -- president trump's upcoming meeting with vladimir putin. did he give you any assurances that they would not make concessions to putin, for example, on crimea? and a second question, in any of your conversations with president trump, has he ever suggested to you that believes the united states has too many troops in europe? thank you. >> we will discuss russia during dinner, but it was also mentioned in my meeting earlier today, my breakfast with president trump and also mentioned during the discussions today, but russia will be on the topic for the dinner, as of tonight. so, all allies, and this is also stated in the declaration we have agreed today, clearly say that we don't recogni

separating the two for a quarter century and opens the door for that country's entry to nato as north macedonia but nato has pushed to absorb the balkans has annoyed moscow. whole region of southeast europe is a big question mark for russia in the past few years it clearly doesn't have the relations it had during the communist era situation needs to be resolved soon various states want to be nato and the e.u. is not pleading to russia nato and policies in greece bulgarian at their back and countries are not leading people to believe that nato and that will benefit their economy and society. sentimental most greeks harbor friendly feelings towards their fellow orthodox russians and consider that true hostility between the two people is all but impossible but politically greece belongs to the west and has to the line including imposing sanctions on russia for its annexation of crimea four years ago so even though greece and russia have no tangible common interests here as elsewhere russia tries to exploit cultural bonds to create divisions in the western alliances process soft power is off the do

separating the two for a quarter century and opens the door for that country's entry to nato as north macedonia but nato has pushed to absorb the balkans has annoyed moscow. southeast europe is a big question mark for russia in the past few years it clearly doesn't have the relations it had during the communist era a situation needs to be resolved soon various states want to be nato and the e.u. is not pleasing to russia nato and policies in greece bulgarian at their back and countries are not leading people to believe that nato and that will benefit their economy and society. sentimental greeks friendly feelings towards their fellow russians and true hostility between the two people is all but but impossible. greece belongs to the west and asked of the line including imposing sanctions on russia for its annexation of crimea four years ago so even though greece and russia have no tangible common interests here as elsewhere russia tries to exploit cultural bonds to create divisions in the western alliances process soft power is off the doxy there is the island of course who. they sent off the co

well of course we're talking about north macedonia and you know there are even came about. and of course nato since i was there back in two thousand and eight in the. in the book arrests summits i remember clearly when you know there was always an intention to expand summit it would have been the same thing unless blown two years later and were whoever the american president was you know keen on expanding nato towards the east even though back then the george sr presidency in the early ninety's promised a good bunch of and others in russia that they would not expand all the way up to georgia and ukraine and yet i remember back in the book at a summit that an invitation or a promise of sort was made to the likes of georgia and the ukraine so be that as it may i think we are really arriving at a time when need to really need to do define itself before it increases the budgets the military budgets of its member states now we know this year already fully that despite all trumps. you know talk or provocations nato is already arrived at a number of agreement during the year i thi

interference in syria and the attempt to bust buttress a dictator in syria it's what's going on in north macedonia what happened in the united kingdom it's a whole series of things that republicans have taken a starkly different position republicans and democrats alike and taken a starkly different position from this white house on john it's the most investigation is not wrapped up before the twenty eighteen election what to think will that have do you think on the elections. you know i would agree i was watching morning joe this morning and lot of the folks on there were talking about the impact this might have an election and most of the and they're not donald trump supporting progressives on the show believe that there would not be much effect of the small investigation on the midterms i think people really are looking at the kitchen table issues and that's the republicans ought to be talking about we ought to be talking about the impact the tax cuts have had in the economy we ought to be talking about infrastructure all the things that the president has gotten done for deregulation and i think

interference in syria and the attempt to bust buttress a dictator in syria it's what's going on in north macedonia what happened in the united kingdom it's a whole series of things that republicans have taken a starkly different position republicans and democrats alike have taken a starkly different position from this white house on john it's the most investigation is not wrapped up before the twenty eighteen election what do think will that have do you think on the elections. you know i would agree i was watching morning joe this morning and lot of the folks on there were talking about the impact this might have an election and most of the and they're not donald trump supporting progressives on the show believe that there would not be much effect of the small investigation on the midterms i think people really are looking at the kitchen table issues and that's the republicans ought to be talking about we ought to be talking about the impact the tax cuts have had in the economy we ought to be talking about infrastructure all the things that the president has gotten done for deregulation and i thin

possibly being in a to remember if they change their name to north macedonia so you can see a lot of things are happening. and they've also agreed still am i'll be think donald trump is just arriving under take a listen to what he has a very amazing two day period in brussels and we really accomplished a lot with respect to nato for years presidents have been coming to these meetings and talked about the expense the tremendous expense for the united states and tremendous progress has been made everyone's agreed to substantially up their commitment they're going to up it at levels that they've never thought of before prior to last year where i attended my first meeting it was going down the amount of money being spent by countries was going down and down very substantially and now it's going up very substantially and commitments were made only five of twenty nine countries were making their commitment and that's now changed the commitment was a two percent ultimately that will be going up quite a bit higher than that so we are we made a tremendous amount of pro

separating the two for a quarter century and opens the door for that country's entry to nato as north macedonia but nato has pushed to absorb the balkans has annoyed moscow. whole region of southeast europe is a big question mark for russia in the past few years it clearly doesn't have the relations it had during the communist era situation needs to be resolved soon various states want to be nato and the e.u. this is not pleasing to russia nato and policies in greece bulgarian at their back and countries are not leading people to believe that nato and will benefit their economy and society. sentimental most greeks harbor friendly feelings towards their fellow orthodox russians and consider that true hostility between the two people is all but impossible but politically greece belongs to the west and the line including imposing sanctions on russia for its annexation of crimea four years ago so even though greece and russia have no tangible common interests here as elsewhere russia tries to exploit cultural bonds to create divisions in the western alliances harass us soft power is off the doxy th

russia's meddling now in north macedonia as we are calling i, it's meddling in greece. it's trying to interfere with the referendum that would change macedonia's name ap then get it into nato and get it into the eu. this is where russia is meddling. russia is paying for local language, broadcasting and magazines at internet servers in places like slo crockia avakia a and poland to divide european countries from one another. this is meddling, too, i suspect trump won't get into that with putin. >> it will be interesting to see how this plays out. thank you for your time and perspective. the u.s. president walking back incendiary comments about the british prime minister. sort of. we'll explain that. i'm captain obvious and hotels.com rewards me basically everywhere. so why am i hosting a dental convention after party in my vegas suite? or wearing a full-body wetsuit at this spa retreat? or sliding into this ski lodge with my mini horse kevin? because hotels.com lets me do me, right? sorry, the cold makes him a little horse. hotels.com. you do you and get rewarded. you're

separating the two for a quarter century and opens the door for that country's entry to nato as north macedonia but nato has pushed to absorb the balkans has annoyed moscow. whole region of southeast europe is a big question mark for russia in the past few years it clearly doesn't have the relations it had during the communist era situation needs to be resolved soon various states want to be nato and the e.u. is not pleasing to russia nato and policies in greece bulgarian at their back and countries are not leading people to believe that nato and will benefit their economy and society. sentimental most greeks harbor friendly feelings towards their fellow orthodox russians and consider that true hostility between the two people is all but impossible but politically greece belongs to the west and has to toe the line including imposing sanctions on russia for its annexation of crimea four years ago so even though greece and russia have no tangible common interests here as elsewhere russia tries to exploit cultural bonds to create divisions in the western alliances process soft power. there is the

we expect to see nato extend an invitation to north macedonia at the summit in july. were hopeful that you will open negotiations but that is uncertain right now. >> have you had a chance to talk to the e.u. about it? and have they given you indication of what they might two. >> we are in dialogue daily with the french on this matter. we are working to help understand their concerns and charts a way forward. i am optimistic we'll see that. i think everyone recognizes that what the greek and macedonia leaders have done is historic. if it is successful, it has the potential to be -- really, i would expect to see a tailwind from that and how we approach bosnian serb ear. we are committed to using that opening not just on the main issue but to get a ripple effe effect. >> if there is a summit between vladimir putin and president trump and secretary on pale will you be advising the president that he should raise the issues of russia meddling as one of the issues for the discussions? >> the issue of russian meddling is at the forefront of all agency discussions about russia

greece concerning the recent agreement between athens and its neighbor to the north of the former yugoslav republic of macedonia on the name deal whereby greece will finally recognize that country and lift its veto to its nato and three this week in fact the nato summit that is going on as we speak the suspicion is that these two men these two russian diplomats were bribing municipal officials mayors church bishops because there is a common cultural ground between greece and russia in the orthodox christian religion and that is always an approach for the two countries in all diplomatic relations. and using that as a basis for sympathy with russian viewpoints which would be against this deal taking place that appears to be the charge but the greek government hasn't yet elaborated on what those activities are it's simply allowing the information that is leaked out to percolate without denying it john thank you very much for that for now that is john vause live in athens thank you. now at least ten people have been killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack in afghanistan's jalalabad city. that is a gun battle betwee