Skopje, 15 September 2022 (MIA) – The Minister of Internal Affairs, Oliver Spasovski, met Thursday with the Romanian Minister of Internal Affairs, Lucian Nicolae Bode, in Bucharest, as part of an official visit to Romania. At the meetings, the two ministers assessed the current bilateral cooperation as fruitful and open, with a desire for further development with greater intensity, as a result of the good relations between the two countries and the shared position in countering current security threats, maintaining peace, stability and security of the citizens and countries. According to a press release from the Ministry, regarding illegal migration, Minister Spasovski pointed out that in the first half of 2022 illegal crossing attempts into North Macedonia recorded a downward trend of 8.3 percent, and in terms of the fight against the smuggling of migrants, this year the country recorded an increase of 72 percent in the number of smuggled migrants. Concerning the situation in Ukraine, the Ministry pointed out that North Macedonia is undertaking the appropriate measures in order to facilitate the entry into the country, on the basis of humanitarian reasons, and the stay of those who are unable to secure private accommodation. Spasovski and Bode assessed that the international police cooperation between the two countries is being realized at a highly professional level, through all international and regional channels of police cooperation. “That implies fast, high-quality and efficient exchange of operational knowledge, i.e. regular action on requests made by both countries, expressing confidence in continued strengthening of the partnership in further security activities to which the Status Agreement with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, expected to be signed soon, will further contribute and help strengthen the efforts to prevent illegal migration, various types of cross-border crime, while intensifying international and European cooperation,” said the Ministry. As part of the meeting, the Ministers signed an Agreement between the Government of North Macedonia and the Government of Romania, on strengthening cooperation in the field of internal control and the prevention and fight against corruption. In order to strengthen the mutual cooperation, the two Ministers also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for support and cooperation in the field of joint training, aimed at the implementation of exchange programs for professional staff and cadets, exchange of experiences and data, development of a joint training program, as well as implementation of joint trainings and projects. On the sidelines of the official visit to the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs, through a visit and presentation, the delegation of the Macedonian Ministry had the opportunity to learn about the operations of the Operational Coordination Centre of the Border Police of Romania. As part of his visit to Bucharest, Minister Spasovski also met with the Director General of the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC), Oğuz Serkant Akın. ad/ba/