In the morning of December 17 local time, Premier Li Keqiang met with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of Macedonia in Belgrade.

Li Keqiang said that China and Macedonia enjoy sound development momentum in the bilateral relations and practical cooperation. During the meeting this time, China has reached consensus with Hungary, Serbia and Macedonia on constructing the land-sea express passage linking China and Europe and all parties also signed the document of Cooperation Framework on Custom Clearance Facilitation and sent the positive signal of supporting trade liberalization and investment facilitation to the outside. It is hoped that Macedonia could offer more policy support and convenience to the construction of the express passage, so that the route can benefit Macedonia and other countries along it at an early date. The Chinese government encourages its enterprises to actively join in the construction of Macedonia's expressway project, and is willing to build a cement plant and a glass factory in the country at its request.

Nikola Gruevski expressed that the meeting of Heads of Government of China and Central and Eastern European Countries this time achieved a complete success and the bilateral cooperation is significant to the development of Macedonia and other countries in the region. Macedonia attaches great importance to the China-Europe express passage project and will do its utmost to ensure the project a success. Macedonia also stands ready to cement cooperation with China in such areas as railway, agriculture, tourism, aviation, hydropower, and the construction of industrial parks.