RBC Daily: Macedonia not keen on entering NATO/EU
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Macedonia not in a hurry to enter in neither NATO nor the EU, states Russian daily paper RBC Daily.
The new advisors of the President of Macedonia George Ivanov on Foreign Policy will be the famous Professor Svetomir Shkarich, Dimitar Mirchev, and Risto Nikovski, a diplomat who has represented his country in Albania, Russia and Great Britain.
Liberal public in Macedonia raised the alarm: Mr. Shkarich is known throughout the country as one of the most stringent and consistent opponent of NATO, but Mr. Mirchev and Ristovski have also made negative comments of the role of the European Union and the intolerable pressure exerted from official Brussels over Skopje on various Political Affairs, states RBC Daily.
Professor Shkarich, who works at the Ss Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, in his books, articles and speeches has made dozens of statements about the role of NATO in the region and has repeatedly expressed doubts about the need for the integration of Macedonia in this military bloc. Moreover, during a discussion organized by the ruling VMRO party in the country, he called on politicians not to despair because of the fact that at the NATO summit in Bucharest, Macedonia did not receive a formal invitation to become a member of the alliance. Instead, according to Mr. Shkarich, the authorities should develop closer relations with Russia and China.
Two other advisers, Mirchev and Ristovski, are also critics, but not only to NATO, but the UN and EU who broke their own rules when admitting Macedonia to the EU and are currently trying to be 'mediators' in an artificial, nonexistent dispute created by Greece. Recall that Greece, states RBC Daily, prevented Macedonia's from entering the UN under its historic name: rather, today it is officially called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The new Macedonian president has repeatedly pointed to the one-sided approach of the Europeans and the UN and advocated the rejection of the proposals coming to the detriment of the national identity of its people, regardless of possible sanctions by the international community, concludes RBC Daily.
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