Today (10 September 2026), the Director of the Bureau of Public Security, Aleksandar Janev, participated in the “North Macedonia–Greece Bilateral Exercise on Mutual Legal Assistance in Financial Crime Cases”, supported by the OSCE Mission to Skopje.
The exercise is aimed at improving practical cooperation between the competent institutions of the two countries through the exchange of experiences, information and best practices in handling cases related to financial crime and cross-border criminal activities.
“Security has no borders. Therefore, our cooperation must have no borders either,” Director Janev stressed, emphasizing that crime knows no borders, criminal networks are interconnected, and financial flows often pass through several countries.
Therefore, as Janev pointed out, the response of the institutions must be joint, timely and coordinated – through direct exchange of information, effective mutual legal assistance, financial investigations, monitoring of suspicious transactions, and the exchange of data relevant to investigations.
As neighboring countries, the two states have a special responsibility to strengthen security cooperation and establish mechanisms that will enable institutions to stay one step ahead of crime.
“Our goal is not only to react when crime occurs. The goal is to jointly stay one step ahead of it – through timely information sharing, coordinated procedures and effective legal assistance,” Janev said.
He emphasized that such exercises are particularly important because they enable the practical testing of cooperation mechanisms and the improvement of procedures for handling complex cross-border cases.
“Where crime sees a border as an opportunity to hide, we should see an opportunity for even stronger cooperation. Strong institutions, closely connected partners and shared responsibility are the foundation for safer citizens and a more stable region,” the BJB Director emphasized.
