Foreign minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Antonio Milososki, has returned from his visit to Washington disappointed with the defence agreement signed between the U.S and his country.The security agreement (previously discussed in Sam Vaknin's article ) was hailed by much of the FYROM press as being the country's savinggrace in the wake of the disappointment of the its failure to join NATO at this year's summit in Bucharest.

The major dailies in the Former Yugoslav Republic, having in previous weeks lauded the security agreement with the U.S as being "better than NATO membership", are now talking about the "empty" agreement obtained by Milososki while in Washington. The agreement, also called a "declaration" in his meeting with Condoleezza Rice, was reported as being limited to a flowery repetition of the current "strong relations" and shared values between the two countries.

No specific obligation or security guarantee is given to Skopje by the agreement. Condοleezza Rice also urged a quick solution to the name issue between FYROM and Greece which kept the former from joining NATO in April. 

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