One meeting. Two flags. One American ambassador. One mayor. And a very long list of topics "discussed" - but without a single concrete agreement, document, or binding conclusion.

The mayor of Prilep, Dejan Prodanoski, yesterday received the US chargé d'affaires, Nicole Varns, as part of her visit to the city. According to the official statement from the municipality, the topics were: a new General Urban Plan, education, monastery tourism, natural beauty, the "East" and "West" ring roads, international cooperation, and - for the wrap-up - "confirmed good cooperation and partner relations between Macedonia and the United States of America."

Six topics in around one hour - because both the ambassador and the mayor have other obligations. Which means each topic was "covered" in ten minutes. That is a meeting for the photo, not for the work. And that is an entirely normal reality of low-level diplomacy - but the question is why every such meeting is presented as a significant international event.

Prilep does need a new GUP - the current one no longer matches the territorial, demographic and infrastructural realities of "the territorially largest municipality in the country." Prilep does need ring roads - traffic through the centre has been a problem for decades. But you do not need an American ambassador for that. You need the municipality to finish the process, secure the funds, and build them. What is the ambassador, concretely, expected to contribute?

The answer is not in the statement, because in the statements from this kind of meeting nothing concrete is ever written. That is the genre: general themes, good intentions, confirmed cooperation. The citizens of Prilep, after this meeting, get exactly as much ring road, as much new GUP, as many new jobs, as they had before: none. But we have a photo, we have flags, we have a "significant international topic" in the municipality's press release.