"The Macedonian-Czech relations are good. We are interested in the country and its neighbours and support their EU, NATO integration," Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg  told reporters after meeting his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Poposki.

He hailed the recent launching of Macedonia-EU high-level dialogue, saying that it has proven the country's readiness for opening of the official EU accession negotiations.

"I believe the talks with Greece are proceeding well and once the name dispute is settled we shall be happy to welcome Macedonia in NATO and EU," Schwarzenberg said.

Today Poposki and Schwarzenberg also tackled the bilateral economic cooperation, with the host Minister saying that Macedonia is on the right track in spite of the crisis.

Schwarzenberg said that Czech PM Petr Necas, accompanied by a large business delegation, would visit Macedonia next month.

Macedonia highly appreciates the Czech support for realization of its strategic objectives - the EU and NATO membership, Poposki said,

Macedonia has met the NATO, EU membership standards, which is also confirmed by the ruling of The Hague-based International Court of Justice, Poposki said.

Macedonia has been already considered as NATO member, while the EU launched a high-level dialogue with the country, thus sending a rather positive message, Poposki said.

"The consistency of the EU enlargement policy  is very important and we believe that our efforts will be recognized," Poposki said.

Today Poposki is giving a speech  on "Macedonia's Road to NATO and EU: Knocking on the Open Door" at the Institute of International Relations.

He is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Petr Necas.

Earlier today he held talks with members of the Senate Committee of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security.