Speaking on behalf of all Macedonian citizens, Crvenkovski expressed gratitude to the United States.
Speaking about the Greek people and the Greek government which contests Macedonia's right to use its constitutional name, Crvenkovski said that the Republic of Macedonia was determined to build friendly and good neighbourly relations.
The Republic of Macedonia was admitted to the United Nations in 1994 under the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia due to pressure from Greece. Since then, Macedonian and Greek representatives in the United Nations have been trying to negotiate a name that would be suitable to both sides.
Macedonia proposed that Greece choose a name by which it would call it, and that it be allowed to communicate with the rest of the world under its constitutional name.
The decade of talks yielded no results and Greece recently proposed that the talks be intensified, with the Greek media announcing that the official name of Macedonia should be New Macedonia.
Also important for Macedonia's bid to have its constitutional name recognised was a declaration which the German parliament adopted some ten days ago, urging the German government to call Macedonia by its constitutional name and see that that name was accepted in the European Union as well.