Stoyanov said he had spoken to Yeltsin in the morning and they agreed that the visit will take place in February or March 1998. At a joint press conference marking the end of the visit of Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, the two presidents told reporters that their countries' bids to join NATO are not prompted by fear of Russia and pledged to develop friendly ties with Moscow. Albania will improve an existing road and build a rail line by 2003, and then it will build a completely new highway by 2010. Improved east-west traffic links among Albania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria will not only strengthen ties between the three states but reduce Macedonia's dependence on transportation routes across Greece or Serbia.
Turkey is also a strong supporter of the project.
The aim of the credit is to modernize the country's economic system and to fight poverty by reducing unemployment and improving social security. Edita Tahiri, a member of the presidency of the Democratic League of Kosovo, the main Kosovar political organization, said in Pristina on 11 December that the international community should appoint a high representative for Kosovo on the model of the high representative for Bosnia. What the walkout did was to highlight what continues to be an important issue on the agenda of the international community, namely, the serious problems in Kosovo. The federal Yugoslav government issued a statement in Belgrade on 11 December that praised the walkout. Sandzak is the former Ottoman Sandzak of Novi Pazar and is now divided between Serbia and Montenegro.