Skopje, 29 August 2022 (MIA) – Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani met Monday with Laurence Boone, Minister of State for Europe at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, on the sidelines of the 17th Bled Strategic Forum themed “The Rule of Power or the Power of Rules”. “The start of accession negotiations this July is a success story for North Macedonia and EU, because it sent a strong message that the region’s integration is an issue of geostrategic interest for the Union,” said FM Osmani. Osmani thanked Boone for the engagement of French President Emmanuel Macron’s and the French EU Presidency in overcoming the blockade to North Macedonia’s Euro-integration, which demonstrated Paris’ commitment to Skopje’s European prospects, the FM wrote in a Facebook post. This year’s forum will focus on discussions on the multilateral order’s crisis, the consequences of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the international community’s response to emerging challenges. Minister Osmani will address a panel on EU and the Western Balkans: Who is prepared?, alongside U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Gabriel Escobar, Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz, Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Ranko Krivokapić, Bosnia and Herzegovina Foreign Minister Bisera Turković, the EU’s Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues Miroslav Lajčák, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt, and Head of the Center for EU integration at Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis Skopje – IDSCS, Zoran Nechev.