EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In order to better understand China’s presence in the Western Balkans, and particularly North Macedonia, it is important to understand the interests and nature of Chinese cooperation initiatives, especially their slant towards the local level. The purpose of this brief is to examine local level cooperation between municipalities from China and North Macedonia, the potential benefits, risks and actual achievements. To that effect, the analysis is based on five case studies of sister-city partnerships between Macedonian and Chinese municipalities. Arguably there is willingness to collaborate on both sides.