On 23 May, the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Fra’ Andrew Bertie, received the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Boris Trajkovski, on a State visit to the extraterritorial headquarters in the Magistral Palace in Rome.

The President, accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, had private conversations with the Grand Master and the Grand Chancellor, Amb. Count Don Carlo Marullo di Condojanni, attended by their respective Ambassadors. On the agenda were the Order’s humanitarian actions during the crisis in the Balkans and those currently underway to help the people and for reconstruction and economic recovery.

During the visit, the Grand Master conferred on the President the decoration of the Order of Merit, reserved for Heads of State.