site.btaComments on North Macedonia’s Abstention on UN Ukraine Resolution

North Macedonia’s abstention from voting on both UN resolutions on Ukraine shows that the country's government is pursuing a foreign policy "without a compass, impulsively and outside clearly established strategic priorities,” opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDUM) party chairman Venko Filipce told a press conference on Wednesday.

Filipce warned that while larger European countries "tactically balance between global powers", with its inconsistency North Macedonia, risks being marginalized by "European political circles".

"By abstaining on the European resolution on Ukraine, our country found itself in bad company, along with Ghana, Bangladesh and Zambia. All our neighbours voted in favour. Countries such as Italy and Poland, which have close relations with the administration of US President Donald Trump, also voted in favour. The map being shared on the Internet these days, where North Macedonia is alone and isolated in its decision, speaks volumes about how things are going in terms of international politics. In global politics, where every move counts, this kind of thing does not go unnoticed," said Filipce, who added that North Macedonia’s government had further deepened the confusion by accepting to co-sponsor the US resolution on Ukraine but also voting for it with abstentions.

In his words, this shows that the country "has no strategy, no coordination and that foreign policy is conducted through improvisations based on the personal assessments of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski".

"We were co-sponsors together with Hungary, Israel and Georgia, and I will remind that this resolution (proposed by the US) is binding because it went through the Security Council. The other members did not vote against it and supported it. In the meantime, when this resolution came to the vote, several amendments were tabled. Most were rejected and one was adopted. Then the sponsor, the United States, who have this right and with whom we were fully coordinated, abstained and we voted abstention," the Prime Minister of North Macedonia said in response to a journalist's question during his visit to the municipality of Negotino. 

At a press conference on Tuesday evening, he reiterated that "no one should have doubts about the harmonization (of North Macedonia) with the foreign and defence policy of the European Union".