President Murmu addresses Assembly of North Macedonia

• President Droupadi Murmu reached Skopje, North Macedonia on the second leg of her State Visit.

• This is the first visit by an Indian President to North Macedonia.

• The President commenced her engagements with the visit to Villa Vodno, the official residence and office of the President of North Macedonia.

• Later, President Murmu addressed the members of the Assembly of North Macedonia on July 21 in the presence of President of North Macedonia Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova.

• During delegation-level talks, the two leaders discussed bilateral cooperation, and exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest. 

• Both sides agreed to double bilateral trade and discussed cooperation in key sectors including tourism, hospitality and filmmaking.

• President Murmu announced India’s decision to double the number of Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) training slots for North Macedonia, including courses in Artificial Intelligence.

Key facts about North Macedonia:

• North Macedonia is a small, landlocked country in the heart of the Balkan Peninsula.

• It shares borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the north.

• It covers an area of 25,713 square kilometres. 

• The country gained its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

• Following the signing of the Prespa Agreement with Greece on June 17, 2018 to resolve the long-standing dispute over the name, the country was renamed as the Republic of North Macedonia from February 14, 2019.

• It has a population of approximately 1.83 million.

• A third of the total population live in Skopje, the capital and the largest city of the country.

India-North Macedonia Relations

• After Macedonia declared independence from former Yugoslavia, India was one of the 40 co-sponsors of the Resolution in the UN General Assembly for its admission into the UN under the provisional name of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) due to a dispute with Greece over the use of the name given in the new country’s Constitution, namely ‘Republic of Macedonia’.

• India formally recognised Macedonia through an exchange of letters at the level of the Permanent Representatives of the two countries to the UN in New York in February 1995 as FYROM, the name under

which the country had been admitted to the UN. 

• Due to Macedonian side’s insistence on use of nomenclature of ‘Republic of Macedonia’ instead of the provisional name of FYROM, the government of India decided in August 2001 that such name could be used in bilateral communications whereas FYROM would continue to be used in multilateral fora.

• The Indian embassy in Bulgaria is concurrently accredited to North Macedonia.

• Bilateral trade between both countries reached $32.53 million in 2025.

• The Indian community in North Macedonia is very small. Most of them are engaged in the IT sector, teaching at universities or working as executives in multinational companies.