Generations of Macedonian Australians have made important contributions to our nation, weaving their language and culture into our story.
Today I welcomed @TimcoMucunski to Canberra as we celebrate 30 years of Australia and North Macedonia’s diplomatic ties. pic.twitter.com/fqvwFsofDO
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) February 12, 2025
And in his own posts on Facebook about his contacts in Australia, Mutsunski noted, among other things (ed. note: translation from Facebook):
“As part of my working visit to Australia, I held the first bilateral meeting at the level of foreign ministers between the two countries in 15 years, which coincides with an important anniversary – 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations. With Foreign Minister Penny Wong … we reaffirmed excellent bilateral relations and discussed regional stability and current geopolitical challenges, with a particular focus on global security.”
“I expressed my gratitude for the support provided by the local and federal governments in Australia for the preservation of Macedonian identity, the study of the Macedonian language and the efforts of the Macedonian community to promote and preserve our culture and tradition…”
“As part of my working visit to Australia, I had the opportunity to meet with MPs of the Parliamentary Group for Friendship and Cooperation with our country… We placed special emphasis on cooperation within the Parliament as an important institution for taking and creating measures and policies that improve the status of the Macedonian community and contribute to the preservation of its identity, language and culture.”
“I place particular emphasis on the role of the Macedonian diaspora in Australia, which is a strong link between the two countries, promoting closer cultural and economic ties. Their contribution not only enriches bilateral cooperation, but also enhances mutual understanding, acting as a key factor in the continuous improvement of relations between the two countries.”
The SBS report wrote that, “while Australia might need a reminder, North Macedonia needs no introduction to the world’s largest superpower. During the 2016 United States presidential race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, more than 100 fake news websites that favoured Trump were launched from the small city of Veles, as opportunists capitalised on the advertising dollars linked to such sites.
“Eight years later, newly elected conservative North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and Mutsunski were among a handful of world leaders invited to Trump’s second inauguration.”
The North Macedonian Foreign Minister commented that “we share common challenges and common goals with this new administration”, and argued that new approaches are needed to address “key threats” such as China and Russia.
Trump and his administration, he added, are “committed to world peace.” He acknowledged, however, that their methods for achieving it may be considered “unconventional”.
“But what has conventional diplomacy brought us?” he said. “It has brought us more war and more conflict in recent years at the global level.”
While insisting that international rules and laws must be respected, Mutsunski expressed the view that the West could be more “flexible”.
“We need to be much more realistic when dealing with foreign policy issues,” he said.
Membership of the European Union for his country, he continued, will act as a bulwark against interference from countries such as Russia.
“It is necessary implementation on the part of the European Union when it comes to the accession of the Western Balkan states as full members of the EU,” he said. “And sometimes this clarity has been lacking.”
North Macedonia has been on the list of EU candidate countries for 20 years.
It is currently ranked 76th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index – an improvement of two places from 2022.
“There is no greater priority for our government than tackling corruption,” said Mutsunski. “The corruption that exists in the judiciary, in the public administration and the corruption that has even run rampant in the business sector.”
“Victims and humiliations”
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Christian Mitskoski, while addressing a panel discussion on Geostrategic and Energy Security at the Munich Security Conference, said that he was not surprised by recent developments, by the announcements of the new US administration and by the new facts that are taking shape in the World.
“I heard the voices here in Munich about interference in internal affairs, but when we changed our flag, when we changed our currency or when we changed our constitutional name, what was that? Was it not interference in internal affairs, and why then did no one speak out? Even now we are faced with the requirement to change the constitution again if we want to start accession negotiations with the European Union. What is this? Isn’t it interference in internal affairs?” said Mitskoski, as quoted in a statement by the government of North Macedonia, according to the Athens Macedonia News Agency correspondent in Skopje, Nikos Fragopoulos.
The North Macedonian prime minister noted that when talking about “two measures and two weights” in politics, the “Macedonian issue” should be taken into account, because, he said, for two decades his country’s candidacy for EU membership cannot be implemented due to “artificial issues” that are raised each time.
On his country’s NATO membership (March 2020), he claimed that it was achieved after “many sacrifices and humiliations” and after his country was “forced to change its name”.
In recent statements in New Jersey USA, recently, Mitskoski chose to talk about “unresolved” and the “existing” Macedonian issue.
“This is a challenge to Greece, attempting to bring back to the fore an issue that has been resolved, as we know, definitively and irrevocably”, the Greek Foreign Ministry replied at the time.
“Greece recalls that further progress in its bilateral relations with North Macedonia and the smooth continuation of the neighbour’s European course require full respect for the Prespa Agreement and, of course, refraining from irredentist declarations and claims against neighbouring countries.”
North Macedonia, Mitskoski continued at the Munich Security Conference, is part of Europe and wants to implement European values.
“But what is happening is something completely different. We are witnessing the so-called ‘Balkanisation of Europe’, instead of the ‘Europeanisation of the Balkans’ Some Balkan EU member states have brought Balkan conflicts and Balkan values to Brussels, instead of the opposite,” he added.
“You said that Russia denies the Ukrainian national identity, language, the country’s church, made a terrible invasion that was a big mistake in the 21st century, but at the same time the parliament of one of the newest EU members (meaning Bulgaria) denies the Macedonian identity, the Macedonian language that has been an official language of the UN since 1945 and has been internationally codified since 1977. I wonder what we are talking about then? Why is everyone silent?”.
The “Macedonian identity” and the associated “Macedonian language” were key elements of the confrontation with Greece before the Prespa Agreement, while they are also a “red rag” for Bulgaria. Mitskoski has accused Bulgaria of being “obsessed” with the Skopje constitutional amendment in which he wants to include a reference to the Bulgarian minority in the country, while he also lashed out at Sofia with provocation against Greece, referring to a “policy of assimilation of Macedonians in Albania”.
From Munich, referring to energy plans for the region, he said that North Macedonia is a “crossroads” and can play an important role.
“Corridor XIII, connecting the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea, is crucial not only for the economy, but also for NATO, as it creates a strong east-west transport axis. At the same time, the modernisation of Corridor X could change the way raw materials and goods are transported across Europe, reducing dependence on distant ports such as Rotterdam and Hamburg.
“If the port of Thessaloniki becomes a key transport hub, North Macedonia will gain a significant economic and geopolitical advantage,” said Mitskoski, who according to his government’s statement, in his remarks to the panel at the Munich Security Conference used his country’s constitutional name (North Macedonia), a rarity for him, as he often refers to his country as “Macedonia”.
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Publish date : 2025-02-15 13:13:00
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