Continuing with this year’s World Leaders Forum speaker series, Prime Minister of North Macedonia Dimitar Kovachevski discussed the benefits of multinationalism, argued for Balkan integration, and condemned Russian aggression on Ukraine.

On Wednesday afternoon, this year’s World Leaders Forum continued with a speech by His Excellency Dimitar Kovachevski, Prime Minister of North Macedonia, introduced by Alexander Cooley, Professor of Political Science at Barnard College and the Harriman Institute.

With a neighboring war, ambitious economic restructuring plans, and a potential bid for membership in the European Union, North Macedonia is currently undergoing massive political, social, and economic change, and Prime Minister Kovachevski finds himself at the cornerstone of it all.

Kovachevski has an interesting background that has had an influence on the perspectives he expressed in his speech. Receiving an education in Economics and leading several important Macedonian corporations, Kovachevski only entered politics in 2020, where he assumed the role of Deputy Minister of Finance. Then, in December 2021, he ran for Prime Minister in the social democratic party and was sworn in in January of this year.

However, though his tenure as a politician is short, his background in business certainly influenced his own preoccupation with developing the North Macedonian economy, which is, as he pointed out in this World Leaders Forum discussion, central to maintaining a strong, diplomatic democracy in a region of Europe facing much ethnic and border conflict.

Prime Minister Kovachevski began his introduction with a brief history of North Macedonia, which celebrated its 31^st anniversary of independence last month. Crucial to both its internal and foreign policies, according to the Prime Minister, is its own path to democracy from Yugoslavia in 1991. “North Macedonia,” he reflected, “is a rare example in the Balkans. If you want to live in a place where diplomacy works, come to North Macedonia.”

Indeed, North Macedonia broke off from Yugoslavia on peaceful and democratic terms, winning independence after a popular election vote. Their diplomatic journey towards democracy directly opposed some of the more tumultuous paths to freedom in countries like Kosovo and Croatia, who won independence through violent wars. However, it is this moment of popular voting that set up the future North Macedonian approaches to diplomacy and identity politics.

Kovachevski used the example of the North Macedonian parliament structure as an illustration of achieving peaceful diplomacy. North Macedonia, located in the Balkans, is a multiethnic nation-state: The majority of people identify as Macedonians, yet a significant portion of the population are Albanian, and many other Slavic and Balkan ethnicities also reside in the country. Kovachevski recognized that the different identities within the state have caused identity conflicts in the past. However, as he mentioned in his speech, the North Macedonian “ethnic democracy” that developed post-independence, or a democracy that allows for each ethnic group to have representation in parliament, encourages active political dialogue. More voices in parliament, then, allows for “bigger creativity and strength in the government,” argued Kovachevski, and it resolves bigger issues like identity and border conflict.

After his brief history of democratic tradition in North Macedonia, Kovachevski turned to speak on the war in Ukraine, which, in his eyes, is a “classic example of a Russian/Ukrainian identity crisis.” Both looking at current events and their own past as part of a socialist mega-state aligned with the Soviet Union, the Prime Minister asserted that Russia has always been a destabilizing force in the world, particularly in Slavic countries. Though he did not touch upon the complexities of the war in great detail, he did discuss the North Macedonian outlook on Russian aggression, and why his government chose to support Ukraine.

“We can solve historical issues and issues related to identity problems,” said the Prime Minister after referencing North Macedonia’s achievement of an ethnic democracy and strong diplomatic relations with Greece and Bulgaria in recent years. With its ability to negotiate with bordering countries and provide solutions to ethnic conflicts, “North Macedonia is now the cornerstone of the stability of the Balkans.”

His solution to Russian aggression, as he expressed in his speech, is to diversify the European economy. The current European energy economic system, according to Kovachevski, has been relying on an infrastructure almost entirely reliant on Russian gas. “That infrastructure now has to be abandoned and restructured,” Kovachevski asserted, so that Europe can distance itself from Russia until they decide to also restructure their energy economy and re-enter European negotiations as a cooperative player.

A restructured economic system, Kovachevski stated in his speech, would involve a rerouting of gas from the South and West to the North and East of Europe, and it would encourage greater political and economic integrations across the regions of Europe. Most importantly, it would bring together the Balkans and strengthen their individual economies, connecting them to “stable” countries like France and Germany.

During the Q&A portion of his speech, Kovachevski portrayed himself as an ambitious “ideas man.” His current projects for North Macedonia are “Balkans Without Borders”—a regional agreement between Balkan nation-states to establish uniform policies along Balkan borders to prevent delay in exports and imports—and an economic restructuring plan that would invest more in tech and finance sectors and bring people back to North Macedonia for industry jobs.

Most importantly, Kovachevski stated that he plans to reorganize North Macedonia’s economy and political system so that they can become full-fledged members of the European Union by 2030. According to him, North Macedonia has already begun entering discussion periods with the EU.

Before the end of his allotted time, Prime Minister Kovacheski imagined a North Macedonia that finally achieved a strong rule of law and provides equal possibilities for everyone. He envisions a country deeply integrated with the rest of Europe and the world, joining a larger community that “includes everyone at the table.”

Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski via Bwog Staff