However, Gates also urged the Macedonians to be "as creative as they could and forward-leaning as possible … so we can try and get their NATO membership done at the foreign ministers meeting in December".
Međutim, Gejts je takođe pozvao Makedonce da budu "što kreativniji i okrenuti napred što je više moguće… kako bismo mogli da pokušamo i ostvarimo članstvo zemlje u NATO-u na sastanku ministara inostranih poslova u decembru".