North Macedonia opts to align with US as 'strategic partner' - Foreign minister - video Dailymotion

euronews (in English)

North Macedonia is prioritising its partnership with the United States while continuing to seek EU membership, foreign affairs minister Timčo Mucunski tells Euronews' The Europe Conversation.

Transcript

00:00my guest on the europe conversation this week is foreign affairs minister for north macedonia

00:12tim chomachinsky he was here at native for the foreign affairs summit he says his country is

00:17ready to join the european union but he says if brussels doesn't act fast russia will fill the

00:23void foreign minister tim chomachinsky thank you very much for joining us on the europe

00:29conversation thank you very much for the opportunity to be a guest in your studio

00:34and so i might start off with eu enlargement for north macedonia i mean obviously you were one of

00:38the first of the western balkans to apply for eu membership over 21 years ago but it appears that

00:44well it's not appears north macedonia is very much lagging behind for a number of reasons around

00:50rule of law and we have these historical disputes with bulgaria and also the greek and dispute which

00:56was resolved but it appears less so now can you just talk us through this trajectory for north

01:01macedonia so i mean without a doubt we are one of these countries that has been historically since

01:07its independence committed to eu and nato integration we realized our goal of becoming a nato member

01:13but the key foreign policy priority of our country that has not been realized is eu membership

01:19this year is what i call a sobering anniversary it's 20 years since we have gained candidate status

01:27in the meantime the eu has has has enlarged we started this process at one point even going

01:35further back to the stabilization and an association process together with croatia croatia is now a member

01:41of schengen it uses the euro as a currency we still haven't opened accession negotiations of course there

01:48have been faults by governments in terms of lack of delivery on some issues without a doubt uh but

01:54what is also a fact is that we have been a victim of far too much bilateralization of the eu process

02:01instead of focusing on criteria on merit-based issues focusing on bilateral issues that have

02:06nothing to do with the substance of a nation's path towards eu membership this is a fair point and um

02:12two of those countries as i as i mentioned there bulgaria and greece in particular in the bulgarian

02:16issue because obviously these countries have a veto anyway so whether you like it or not the

02:21bilateral issues have to be resolved in some way will there be an inclusion for the bulgarian minority

02:26within the constitution of north macedonia the issue is uh much more than the issue of inclusion

02:33of the bulgarian minority and i'll try in a nutshell to to explain this to you uh first of all who has

02:38the most to gain from our country becoming an eu member of course first it's us without a doubt but

02:44secondary it is the countries around us that are member states of the european union and here i

02:49mean greece and bulgaria directly now in these more than 30 years of of an eu path we have made

02:57extremely difficult compromises as i've mentioned many times before we've changed our flag we've

03:02changed our currency we've changed our constitution several times we've even changed the name of our

03:06country all with the promise of a window of opportunity that we've been told existed if we do these

03:13changes for our path towards the european union and thus the question and the dilemma that we pose

03:19to both eu institutions as well as the member states is will this be the final compromise will we

03:25know that if these constitutional amendments are made six months down the road a year down the road

03:31again there will not be a veto because of a bilateral issue why we pose this question first of

03:38all to protect our own national interests to not allow issues related to language history identity

03:44to engulf our eu accession process but also at the end of the day to protect the credibility of

03:51european enlargement in the entire region because there are malign actors out there who like to point

03:56the finger and say do you really believe that the eu is honest in its intention for enlargement

04:02look at what they're doing to the macedonians and then we also had the prespa agreement which

04:05resolved the issue around greece but you have we have heard in the past or recently as some ministers

04:12refusing to use the name north macedonia which again will create problems and confrontations

04:17with greece is that an issue still i mean if if i speak personally as an individual and i remove

04:23myself from the position that i have then i i will never be able to say to you that i am happy with

04:28the prespa agreement that i believe the prespa agreement is good or that i believe the changing

04:32of the name of the nation is fair uh especially in the 21st century but at the end of the day

04:38as foreign minister and as a lawyer i understand that the principle of pacta sun servanda and that

04:44agreements must be kept especially in international public law is a fundamental principle and in that

04:51sense we are a nation that will respect its obligations but also a nation that expects its partners its

04:59neighbors in the region to also respect obligations in these agreements that they've made towards us

05:05okay because you mentioned their pacta sun servanda agreements should be kept and you know

05:09one of the issues that the eu has with north macedonia and joining the eu is around the rule of law

05:15independence of the judiciary various types of corruption and obviously that's hugely problematic

05:20because all eu member states will point to the deficiencies in the eu when they had the last

05:25bout of enlargement particularly countries like hungaria slovakia and and so on so where is north

05:31macedonia with making this making greater progress on this so this is one of the key priorities of our

05:37government our government was formed less than a year ago and it has taken very direct steps towards

05:45fighting corruption both high-level corruption but also corruption that exists in in mid-level and low-level

05:51civil service uh establishing a system of rule of law but this is not something that we can do overnight

05:57and i would once again reiterate it is also a whole of society effort it's not just about the executive

06:03delivering uh but it's about uh a cultural change that has to happen within the judicial system it's

06:10about bringing on board uh civil society and various different actors and how long will that take because

06:15i mean this has been on the agenda for as you mentioned 20 21 years regrettably it's been on the

06:20agenda uh in rhetoric for maybe more than 30 years uh but substantially very little uh has been done

06:28uh this is a process uh where we need to establish clear time frames many of these types of time frames

06:35going into the micro and meso uh aspects of these issues have already been done for us with the help of

06:40the european union and european union experts and then we need to start delivering uh because uh this delivery

06:47is about government doing its job uh but it's about creating this as i said cultural change within

06:54society which helps stimulate investment which helps stimulate entrepreneurship which puts young people

07:02in a situation where they don't want to leave the country because many young people are departing not

07:07just because of economic reasons but because of an unfunctional system of governance and also hopefully

07:14put our country in a situation where young people that are living abroad want to come back invest in

07:20the country build families in the country uh take part in in political activities in the country i mean

07:26this is a priority of our government i want to move on to the nato foreign ministers meeting you're

07:30here first of all can i ask you a little bit about russian interference in in north macedonia i mean

07:35one of the reasons why um enlargement needs to happen quickly they say is because the countries in the

07:40western balkans need to be brought into the eu away from the russian orbit is that something that you

07:44would agree with that narrative that premise uh i think enlargement needs to happen for many reasons

07:50but one of these reasons uh from a security uh perspective is of course the malign uh russian

07:57influence that has been existing uh in our region uh that is there i sometimes like to very openly uh

08:04point out that russian influence especially in our region comes very cheap and they know how to to

08:09utilize it is it through social media can you tell us a little bit about hybrid and cyber attacks

08:14what is it it's a mix of of of all of the very conventional methods if i can label them that russia

08:19does use and that happens in our region as well and does it impact young people's viewpoints does

08:25it impact political parties what is the in what is the um the upshot for countries like north macedonia

08:32so i think first of all generally uh our society and our political establishment going from

08:38government to opposition is uh extremely pro-eu and society wants to move uh forward uh towards

08:46uh eu membership but one of the things that happens in is when there's lack of clarity coming from the

08:51european union and the member states especially our issue is a prime example then you will have

08:57russian influence uh utilizing this to say listen the eu is not honest it will never integrate uh the

09:05region and if there's lack of delivery credible delivery on the other side uh then it's it's a

09:12battle that the pro-eu forces in our country have to wage with these various different spheres of

09:17influence that do exist uh and that will be utilized i think one of the reasons why the eu needs to be

09:24very quick and expedient in its delivery to the entire region is to show that the clarity is there

09:32the strategic vision is there can i ask you then why did your country abstain on the un

09:37and resolution condemning russian aggression in ukraine so our country i like to point out has

09:43three constants in its foreign policy one of them is 100 alignment with the eu's common foreign and

09:50security policy the second is our membership in nato and the third is our strategic partnership we have

09:58a formal strategic partnership with the united states in this situation what i can say is that

10:04we have been one of the most consistent supporters of ukraine from the nato member states we are one of

10:09the biggest supporters per gdp per capita for ukraine in terms of defense and security support but in

10:16this current situation because there was no alignment within the cfsp within the european union we chose to

10:23vote aligned with our strategic partner the united states which means that we do support ukraine and

10:30we do support the necessity for protecting ukraine's integrity and territorial sovereignty but we also

10:38agree that there needs to be a path towards peace so even that decision was in line with the very

10:44consistent foreign policy that we've had as a nation how do you find then the negotiation so far where you

10:50you it appears that very little concessions actually no concessions have been applied to russia from

10:55the united states and several to ukraine whether it's their energy systems whether critical minerals

11:02whether it's about a ceasefire i mean where how do you see the u.s treatment of ukraine vis-a-vis the

11:08negotiations so the perception that i have is that ukraine is on board with this process and is actively

11:14taking part in in this process and at the end of the day ukraine is a sovereign nation that must make

11:20decisions for itself what i can say is that we as a nato member country support the path towards peace

11:27it seems very obvious right now that the united states has a path towards peace which they believe

11:33is viable and in that sense considering that ukraine is on board with this process we absolutely support

11:40the process that is being led by the trump administration secretary rubio as well as

11:45the whole team in finding a peaceful solution as soon as possible okay foreign minister tim chomachinsky

11:51of north macedonia thank you very much for joining us on thank you very much for the invitation thank you so much

North Macedonia opts to align with US as 'strategic partner' - Foreign minister

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