VMRO-DPMNE’s diplomatic entourage returns home

Vasko Naumovski, Macedonia’s current ambassador to the United States, is returning home on the 31st of this month. President Gjorge Ivanov has already signed the Naumovski Decree on ambassadorial duty. The decision was published in the “Official Gazette” on September 17, together with the decrees on the dismissal of another dozen Macedonian ambassadors, mainly from European countries, but also from the NATO mission in Brussels. According to the estimates, the mandates of most of the ambassadors who were appointed during the previous government are finished, with the exception of Ivica Bocevski, who went to the new embassy that Macedonia opened in Brazil.

Several days after signing the instructions for dismissal of the ambassadors, Ivanov traveled to the United States, where during most of his visit he was accompanied by Ambassador Naumovski, who in May this year was the target of criticism of the Government because he was not present during the visit to Washington by Deputy Prime Minister Radmila Sekerinska. The Defense Minister then met with US Secretary of State James Mattis on the eve of the NATO summit in Brussels, where Macedonia received an invitation to join the alliance. Therefore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Naumovski for consultations in Skopje.

A few months earlier, Naumovski, a former deputy prime minister for European affairs in one of the offices of Nikola Gruevski, was excluded from participating in the name negotiations, with the process being taken over by the foreign ministries of Macedonia and Greece. Just days before being “delegitimized” as a Macedonian negotiator for the name dispute, Naumovski  sparked new issues on the Ivanov-Government relationship, when he rushed with a personal assessment of the proposals from the then-round of negotiations in New York, calling the package of mediator Matthew Nimetz indecent. Then the position of Namovski coincided with the views of Ivanov, as opposed to the Government, from which they pointed out that they will carefully analyze the package of Nimetz and assess that whether it was positive that the process was moving forward.

Although he is an ambassador to our diplomatic-consular office in the United States, more precisely in Washington DC, Naumovski accompanied President Ivanov in New York, where he addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday – with messages against the name agreement and with the confirmation that he would boycott the referendum, which he previously presented at the meetings with the Macedonian Diaspora. Pictures published on Facebook of their dinners with Macedonian immigrants in New York are evidence to this. In addition to Ivanov, his wife Maja Ivanova and Ambassador Naumovski, the president’s son is also there, who was apparently also in New York during the UN General Assembly.

Macedonia currently has no ambassador to the UN mission in New York. This mission, as well as another twenty Macedonian diplomatic offices, is covered by a duty officer. In the UN mission, Macedonia is represented by Tanja Dinevska as acting officer. OSCE officials are also in charge of OSCE missions in Vienna, the UN in Geneva and UNESCO in Paris. Macedonia has no ambassadors in some of the European countries, as well as in neighboring countries such as Albania, Belgium, Spain, Italy etc. With the return of another dozen Macedonian ambassadors at the end of October, the Macedonian diplomatic and consular offices will be further discharged.

There is no official information when the completion of the Macedonian diplomatic network can be expected, given the disagreements over the issue between the Government and the Foreign Ministry, on the one hand, and President Ivanov on the other. Ivanov insisted that the new ambassadors be exclusively professionals. And although the Government complied with this condition, which was not a practice during previous government on Ilinden Street, a chaos occurred later about some personnel decisions. Some of the Government’s proposals were acceptable to Ivanov, some for his own personal reasons. Therefore, it is not excluded that the completion of the diplomatic network be postponed until the election of a new president – in May 2019.

In addition to Naumovski, at the end of this month, Macedonian ambassadors to NATO – Zoran Dabic, Austria – Vasilka Popovska Terenevska, Kazakhstan – Ilija Psaltirov, Ukraine – Stole Zmejkovski and the United Arab Emirates – Saso Tasevski are returning to the country.

(AMM)