We are for NATO and EU, but we want to join with our heads up, not through the service door Kavadarkov said.

Prime Minister Zaev says NATO membership will bring much needed investment to Macedonia, which has an unemployment rate of more than 20 percent.

The question on the referendum ballot read Are you for NATO and EU membership with acceptance of the agreement with Greece.

I believe the huge majority will be in favor because more than 80 percent of our citizens are in favor of EU and NATO, Zaev said after casting his ballot.

However, supporters of the referendum, including Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, argue that the name change is simply the price to pay to join the EU and NATO.

Athens has long insisted that its northern neighbor's name represents a claim on its territory and has repeatedly objected to its membership bids for the EU and NATO.

Greece, which has a province called Macedonia, maintains that its northern neighbor's name represents a claim on its territory and has vetoed its entrance into NATO and the EU.

And the story was a catalyst, and the next morning I had hundreds of Facebook friend requests from Indonesians and Finns, mostly saying, Admiral, we heard you need a friend, and oh, by the way, what is NATO?

Supporters of the name change, including Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, argue that it is a price worth paying to pursue admission into bodies such as the EU and NATO for Macedonia, one of the countries to emerge from the collapse of Yugoslavia.

The people of Macedonia voted in a referendum on Sunday on whether to change its name to Republic of North Macedonia, a move that would resolve a decades old dispute with Greece which had blocked its membership bids for the European Union and NATO.

Macedonia's PM Zoran Zaev, his wife Zorica and his son Dushko cast their ballot for the referendum in Macedonia on changing the country's name that would open the way for it to join NATO and the European Union in Strumica, Macedonia September 30, 2018.

The best way to proceed on the Medvedev Plan would be an OSCE declaration similar to the one adopted in Istanbul in 1999 that is, a political resolution, not a legally binding treaty.

Second, the principle of the indivisibility of European and US security, so fundamental during the Cold War, remains valid. Security initiatives should therefore first be discussed bilaterally within the NATO EU framework only then should a common position be presented at the OSCE.