'The Republic of Macedonia after the NATO Summit in Budapest'

Wednesday 14 May, 1:00-2:00pm
at Room 211, Level 2, 234 Queensberry Street, The University of Melbourne

presented by

H.E. Viktor Gaber

(Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia)

Abstract

After the conditional invitation for membership made at the Summit of NATO in April this year the Republic of Macedonia is once again in the desperate position of protecting and proving its right to existence as a sovereign and independent subject on the international scene.

The Republic is a small and peaceful nation with 2 million inhabitants and sits in the centre of the Balkans and Europe. In its efforts to achieve fully fledged membership of the UN, NATO and EU, the Republic of Macedonia has given lots of “pretexts” for intervention from abroad and this has led consequently to new precedents in world diplomatic history. An understanding of this recent history should acknowledge in part the country’s geo-strategic position, the transitional changes of post-communism and the factors that arise from it being a multi-ethnic society.

In light of this can it be said that the NATO Summit in Bucharest is the turning point in surpassing the “delivery pains” of the transitional state? Does, with this Summit, start the downhill in the overall development, imposition of insurmountable difficulties for assuring undisturbed advancement of Macedonian society, as well as the economic decline, internal conflicts and broader destabilisation of the region?

Biography

His Excellency Mr. Viktor Gaber, Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia to Australia (from 2004), is a graduate from the Law Faculty in Skopje, and obtained an MA degree in the field of State and Legal History of Macedonia. He has published dozens of scientific and expert works and amongst those, three books titled “For the Macedonian Diplomacy”, “The troubles of a Macedonian Intellectual” and “Collateral damage”.

In his career he was a Counselor for Foreign Affairs of the Prime Minister and of the Presidency of the Republic of Macedonia, State Counselor and Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has served as diplomat in Athens, Tirana, Rome, and now in Canberra. He speaks several languages including French, English, Greek, Italian and Albanian.