Skopje, 14 May 2023 (MIA) — Philip Reeker, Chair of the Global Europe Program at the Wilson Center, spoke with Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Bujar Osmani about North Macedonia's challenges in chairing the OSCE, the country's international success story, and the role of the United States in the OSCE, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release.

FM Osmani said the organization had showed resilience despite the difficult situation it was in. One member country had blocked two missions in Ukraine, he said, but the OSCE had found a creative way to go back to Ukraine to help Ukrainians and the Ukrainian institutions.

"What we wanted to do during our chairing OSCE was to bring the OSCE closer to ordinary people. Diplomacy is not just diplomats sitting at a table and discussing public policies. It is also working in the field," Osmani said.

In response to Reeker's question about the United States' role in the OSCE, Osmani said he had discussed that very issue in Washington.

"I came back to Skopje even more confident about the organization's future, having been reassured that the USA is there and will continue to play an important role in the OSCE," he said.

He said the OSCE missions in Vienna, Skopje and Washington worked closely together on the common goal of moving the OSCE agenda forward.

Osmani also spoke about North Macedonia's progress, emphasizing the success story of its functional multi-ethnic democracy, its culture of dialogue, and its good neighborly relations. He noted that Washington, Brussels, the OSCE and other organizations greatly helped the country along the way, the release says.

The Wilson Center, chartered by US Congress in 1968 as the official memorial to US President Woodrow Wilson, is the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum for tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue to inform actionable ideas for the policy community. mr/