The migration of more than a million refugees through Macedonia in a massive and unorganized manner is the direct effect of the conflicts taking place on the Middle East, said Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki in his address at an international conference on Tuesday.
Macedonia has decided to be part of the joint European response in the tackling of the refugee wave, Poposki added at the conference dubbed "The conflict in the Middle East and North Africa: Increasing transnational security threats to Western Balkans".
The summit is organized by the Institute for Geostrategic Researches and Foreign Policy, part of the Macedonian Foreign Ministry, in cooperation with George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, while US and German Ambassadors to the country, Jess Baily and Christine Althauser respectively, as well as the institute's head, Abdulkadar Memedi held speeches at the event.
Referring to the political and security situation in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the current conflicts and the transnational threats and influences arising from these conflicts in terms of Macedonia's and the western Balkan countries' national security, Poposki pointed that two aspects are important in this context.
The first one is how the destabilization in the Middle East has directly affected Macedonia and the region countries, and the second, how the country influenced the destabilization and what are Skopje's expectations.
"In a brutal way and in a short while, we've understood how close we are to the Middle East, and such a high conflict level near one small geographical determinate has to be felt. The transition of more than a million refugees through Macedonia as a transit station in a massive and unorganized way is the direct effect of the Middle East conflicts over our country. Macedonia was faced with two options. The first one, to be a mere observer and to place signs stating the distance to the western European countries, which is the easy and cheap option, and the second one, the risky, harder and more expensive option, to be part of the joint European response. Europe wouldn't be Europe without the humane aspect. We've decided for the second option, the more expensive and more difficult one, together with our partners and neighbors to be part of the European solution," Poposki told the conference participants.
Possibilities lie in every difficulty, he added, noting the increased cooperation with Macedonia's southern neighbor.
"We've never had greater cooperation with the Greek authorities than now regarding the migration crisis. A solution within European frames is in the interest of all of us. The other possibility is to prove how much Macedonia is an important partner in terms of the European integration. We cannot have a solution to the migrant crisis on our own, nor Europe will have a better solution without us," Poposki pointed.