WASHINGTON — North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told Breitbart News exclusively that his country’s government is “strongly” supportive of American President Donald Trump’s government and policies on a number of fronts, from foreign policy to energy to geopolitics and more.
Mickoski told Breitbart News that his government formally backed Trump even before his comeback in the 2024 election, hosting Trump-campaign-aligned officials in North Macedonia in mid-2024 and then sending a formal delegation to Trump’s inauguration in early 2025.
“Macedonian citizens are supporting very decisively President Trump’s administration,” North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said during an exclusive interview with Breitbart News last week, noting that Trump’s “credibility among Macedonian citizens is absolutely huge.” (Photo Courtesy the Prime Minister’s office in North Macedonia)
“Even prior to him becoming President of the United States, some of the people which are part of his closest perimeter visited us even during the campaign when there was not too many European nations that believed that President Trump would become president,” Mickoski said in a nearly hourlong phone interview last week. “We were elected as a government in June 2024. Immediately after the NATO summit in D.C. in July 2024, a team of associates of President Trump visited us in the government and we were practically in that time the only government that received the members of the team of President Trump. Among them was Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Devin Nunes, former member of the Congress, and of Macedonian origin Chris Pavlovski, the owner of Rumble. They visited us in the government, and we strongly conveyed a message of support for President Trump prior to him becoming president. Then, when he was elected as president, I was invited during the inauguration ceremony and a delegation of the Macedonian government visited D.C. in that time so we conveyed our message of support and willingness for increasing of future cooperation. Practically, we are fully aligned with all resolutions in United Nations, and we supported them in the past two years a lot of times when it comes to the Iran issue, Venezuela, Cuba issue, and so on and so forth. Also, we are in a very strong communication with Ambassador Ric Grenell. We are discussing about the future potential cooperation in energy with the Ambassador of the United States in Greece, Ms. [Kimberly] Guilfoyle. We are talking about American LNG trade potential in the region. We are trying to promote economical interest in the region, and we strongly do that. We are the pivotal point of American interests in the Balkans, and we are a strong pillar of support of American interests in the Balkans. So, practically, without any doubt, we stand next to our strategical partners, the United States’s and President Trump’s policy, and we strongly support them.”
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told Breitbart News that North Macedonia is “the country without any doubt for support when it comes to the President Trump administration,” even prior to him becoming president officially, “when there were not too many countries in Europe believing that he would defeat Kamala Harris during the presidential race.” (Photo Courtesy the Prime Minister’s office in North Macedonia)
Mickoski said that Trump’s support in his nation is very high, higher than anywhere else in Europe, and that he would be happy to welcome Trump to North Macedonia should the American president’s schedule allow for a trip.
“Seeing that the polls of President Trump are the highest in my country, so Macedonian citizens are supporting very decisively President Trump’s administration, and when I’m saying that the polls are highest, I’m meaningful because I’m following the polls, and I know that his credibility among Macedonian citizens is absolutely huge, and without any doubt, keen to invite him,” Mickoski said. “I will be very keen to host him at the highest level. He will enjoy the support of Macedonian citizens. When he will have available time slot in his schedule we will be very keen to host him if he decides to visit the region, because as I said, like not so many allies in Europe, we are the country without any doubt for support when it comes to the President Trump administration, even much more longer time ago and prior to him becoming president officially, when there were not too many countries in Europe believing that he would defeat Kamala Harris during the presidential race.”
North Macedonia was also one of the first countries to negotiate a trade deal with the United States after Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, and Mickoski said he hopes more deals can get signed in the coming weeks when he visits the United States for the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He said he hopes to visit the White House to see Trump or to see him on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York.
“Yes, we negotiated one year ago, I think it was, when we started our negotiations with President Trump’s administration, and we reached we reached a compromise,” Mickoski said. “We impose zero custody rate for the United States products for importing in the territory of my country, and so vice versa. We’ve got zero tariffs when it comes to the exporting Macedonian products to the United States. So practically, more or less, we have common ground, and I think that soon from now, probably there is a chance now during the UNGA to have an official meeting, either in White House or wherever, to sign this bilateral treaty between both of countries. So I think that this will add a value on the relations of both countries.”
He is hoping for even more cooperation between the U.S. and North Macedonia in the coming months.
“Since I’m traveling for UNGA this year—for the United Nations General Assembly—maybe it will be a good opportunity to sign this bilateral treaty either in the White House or in the Department of State, whichever works,” Mickoski said. “For us, it’s very important, and I think that for the United States it is very important because through us, by increasing our economical cooperation, this will increase bilateral cooperation as well. Even our bilateral cooperation is at the highest point ever, historically speaking. But by signing this bilateral treaty, everything will be much more easier for both countries. So, the United States has a very strong ally in the Balkans. I know that they appreciate very much what we are doing for our partnership. But with this bilateral treaty, we will make our bilateral partnerships much more stronger and much more feasible in terms of economical cooperation in the future, and this will open the gates for U.S. exports and investors to have a much more ambitious and much more meaningful role not only in the Balkans but also in Europe generally speaking.”
Both Grenell and Guilfoyle, top Trump officials, spoke highly of Mickoski ahead of the Breitbart News interview with him—and Mickoski likewise spoke highly of both of them. Mickoski made clear that North Macedonia very much so backs Trump and the United States on key matters even when it’s politically inexpedient to do so—including voting lockstep with the United States at the United Nations.
“When America needed allies to take positions practically, my country did not hide in the crowd, which is very important,” Mickoski told Breitbart News. “We stood with the United States very quickly, clearly, and consistently, including when practically doing so carries a political cost. That was for us very important because friends are when some others are not such devoted friends as they are pretending to be in the peaceful times. So practically, when President Trump needed our support in United Nations voting declarations, which are based on the interests of the President Trump’s administration, we gave our no-doubtless support without any reservations unlike with some other stakeholders. So that was a clear message of support, and we will continue to do so in the future.”
“Every day American Air Force aircraft are landing and departing from our airports,” North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said during an exclusive interview with Breitbart News last week. “We have an open sky for American aircrafts, military aircrafts, and we are proud to and we are on disposal to provide such support for the American Air Force.” (Photo Courtesy the Prime Minister’s office in North Macedonia)
It is not just bureaucratic institutions where the Macedonians are providing support. United States Air Force jets are using North Macedonia’s airports—in the heart of the Balkans in Eastern Europe—as a strategic location near the Middle East. Mickoski told Breitbart News he is proud to lend support to the United States in the war with Iran.
“The American Air Force is using our airports, so every day American Air Force aircraft are landing and departing from our airports,” Mickoski said. “So some of them are using our airports for parking, for taking a rest a little bit, and going back to the Gulf. We have an open sky for American aircrafts, military aircrafts, and we are proud to and we are on disposal to provide such support for the American Air Force, of course.”
North Macedonia is just north of Greece, and just south of Serbia, right in the heart of the Balkans—Albania borders North Macedonia to the west, and Bulgaria to the east.
Mickoski described his nation as being on the “front line” of an “invisible battlefield” in an emerging economic war between the west—the United States and Europe—and the far east, in China.
“I will try to describe a little bit the geo-strategical position of my country, which is unfortunately a landlocked country—which might be considered as a small disadvantage,” Mickoski said. “We are a couple of tens of kilometers far from the sea, but unfortunately we are not exposed to the sea since something from the past. However, we are a crossroads of two very important pan-European corridors, but not pan-European only. They are important for the world as well. I’m talking about corridor eight and corridor ten. What is the purpose of both corridors? Corridor eight is connecting the Adriatic and Ionian Sea with the Black Sea, and corridor ten is connecting the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea with Central Europe. Corridor eight is very important due to the fact that immediately when the war in Ukraine will be over, and when the reconstruction of Ukraine will start, this corridor eight will be very important for the supply chain, and practically this will make a shorter supply chain and the cost of delivery will be much lower. When it comes to the corridor ten, it’s worth mentioning that corridor ten, as I said, is connecting the Mediterranean, although I mean Aegean Sea with the Central European countries like Hungary, Austria, and so on and so forth. Practically, we are here, hypothetically speaking, we are at the front line of this invisible battlefield. When I’m talking about an invisible battlefield, I’m talking about the Chinese interest in this part of Europe, European interests on their own soil, and the American interests. Why we are at the front line of the invisible battlefield? Because now everything that comes from the east, all raw materials, all products, are used in two ports in Europe, the ports of Rotterdam and Hamburg. China acquired two ports in Greece, Piraeus port, and they are a shareholder into the Thessaloniki port as well. When I’m talking about Piraeus port, I’m talking about complete ownership of the port. So practically, they’re expanding the capacity of the port. Why? Because they will need, they want to use Piraeus port for harboring vessels—and practically they would like to connect these Piraeus ports with Central Europe which will make the supply chain shorter between 18 and 22 days. So you can imagine what 18 and 22 days nowadays means in terms of costs and in terms of increasing the competitiveness and increasing the maneuvering space and decreasing of a price.”
The Macedonians have formally made clear to the world they side with the United States, and they are also trying to gain entrance—a decades-long goal—into the European Union. Mickoski warned of China’s rising influence in the region, particularly through its efforts to buy and fund ports in Greece—particularly the Piraeus port. As Breitbart News has previously reported, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Piraeus port in Greece just outside Athens and called it China’s “dragon’s head” in Europe. Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis and Guilfoyle, the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, spoke in interviews for that story laying out how the United States has responded by funding a port of its own in Greece—but Mickoski warned that the long-term goals of the Chinese are to “swamp” the markets of western countries with companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. He cited as an example Chinese electric automaker BYD’s growth in Hungary.
“China will use Piraeus port to export products and raw materials and to deploy all of them to Central Europe, for example, BYD,” Mickoski told Breitbart News. “I don’t know whether you have this information. BYD commissioned a production facility in Hungary worth $10 billion, and literally now BYD swamps up competition when we are talking about electric vehicles in the European market. So the number one seller in the European market now is BYD. Imagine what will happen in the future if we allow China to connect Piraeus with Central Europe. Literally, they will swamp up competition from the European market, and they will dominate, and they will conquer the European market. So the only puzzle which is missing in the mosaic is the territory of my country. Why? Because they are building a fast railway which is connecting Budapest via Belgrade with the northern border of my country with Serbia and an important fast railway in Greece, so practically the only section which is missing in the mosaic is the section which is crossing on the territory of my country, connecting the northern border with Serbia and southern border with Greece. So that’s why I’m saying that we are at the front line of an invisible economical battlefield.”
North Macedonia does not seek hostilities with China, and respects China’s One China policy, but Mickoski explained that the priorities of his country are working with the United States to advance freedom on the world stage.
“We respect the principle of one China without any doubt, but at the meantime, our strategic partner is the United States, together with our allies in NATO and with our partners in the EU,” Mickoski said. “But our utmost priority are relations with our strategic partner, the United States, and the current President Trump administration. So this is our pathway forward, and we will follow our pathway forward in the future.”
North Macedonia has also been trying for many years to join the European Union, and has faced issues with disputes between North Macedonia and both Greece and Bulgaria with French President Emmanuel Macron even vetoing its induction at one point. Mickoski said the “second milestone for my country” after working with the United States as a first priority “is to be a part of the EU.”
“To be a part of the EU is good for plenty of reasons for my country and for the citizens of my country. Why? Because we are talking about increasing the security and increasing the resilience of the region overall,” Mickoski said. “We started our journey two and a half decades ago. It was 2000 when we signed a stabilization and association agreement with the European Union. Then, together with Croatia in 2005, we’ve become officially candidate countries to be a part of the EU. In 2008, from the European Commission, we’ve got the first positive report for starting the negotiations but unfortunately since then our hurdles and our challenges started. So practically, it was first the name dispute with our south neighbor Greece, and now we have a dispute with our eastern neighbor Bulgaria, and all those disputes are somehow connected with our identity. I don’t know whether you knew that information, but we are facing a lot of challenges since we’ve become an independent state from the former Yugoslavia. So if we go back three and a half decades ago, I must flag out a couple of very important pieces of information. We changed our flag. We changed our currency. In the meantime, we changed our constitution two times, and finally we changed our constitutional name. According to a lot of, I would say, bureaucrats from Brussels and from all over the world, it’s supposed to be the last thing that we did. But unfortunately they betrayed us and they lied to us. Immediately after our change of our constitution, French President Macron imposed a veto. He requested a change of methodology of negotiations, and when the new methodology for negotiations was adjusted, then unfortunately our eastern neighbor came to the scene and they asked from us to change our constitution. So practically, we are now in a very, I would say, critical situation, and very funny situation. In one multilateral organization, we are allies with Bulgaria, with our eastern neighbor. I’m talking about NATO. And in another multilateral organization, European Union, we have the same allies from NATO imposing constraints for us and imposing a veto, which is not a very, I would say, friendly gesture. Those are the double standards and unanimity rule within the EU itself. They can’t understand that our membership in the EU is strategical for NATO. As I said, from plenty of reasons, among them is resilience and security. So they are weakening the south and eastern flank of NATO by constraining us to become a part of the EU, because as economically much more stronger is my country that makes much more resilient the eastern flank of NATO—and we will be able to modernize in a much quicker way our armed forces and invest more into the corridors which are important for logistical purposes of NATO. So there are plenty of reasons why we need to be a part of the EU, and this is the reason plus for the United States and President Trump’s administration to support us in this manner.”
“We want to turn the strategic dialogue into the present Trump-style diplomacy, with fewer bureaucratic processes and more concrete deliverables in security, energy technology, and infrastructure, trade, and investments,” North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said during an exclusive interview with Breitbart News last week. (Photo Courtesy the Prime Minister’s office in North Macedonia)
North Macedonia earlier this year signed a “strategic dialogue” with the United States, and Mickoski is hopeful this will expand beyond that into even more concrete economic cooperation between the two nations.
“We want to turn the strategic dialogue into the present Trump-style diplomacy, with fewer bureaucratic processes and more concrete deliverables in security, energy technology, and infrastructure, trade, and investments,” Mickoski said. “This is our milestone, and we signed a lot of MOUs. I think that there is big progress. DFC [the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation] is financing one very important project, a mine project. We we have probably the biggest depot of antimony. So there is a big Australian and Canadian investment in the country, and the U.S. is financially supporting that kind of investment. So practically, we will excavate antimony in my country, and we will deploy that critical mineral to the United States. Later, the United States will use this critical mineral for producing military equipment. So practically, we have very, very, very strong ties created with the strategic dialogue.”
North Macedonia is also, Mickoski said, very supportive of Trump’s efforts to get NATO allies to spend more on their national defense. He said North Macedonia is already north of 2 percent of its GDP on defense spending with a plan to get as high as 3.5 percent—with an additional 1.5 percent of GDP spending on critical infrastructure projects to be used by NATO forces.
“Yes, you are absolutely right, and practically we are in the first half of the group,” Mickoski said, the groups referenced being most of Europe which is already spending more on defense versus a small minority which is not. “We are now above the threshold of 2 percent when it comes to the military expenditures. We are, I think, that we are in the first half of the group, and we prepared a scenario on how to reach 3.5 percent up to 2032. On top of that, we have 1.5 percent of our GDP investments into our critical infrastructure, which will be used by NATO South and Eastern flanks. So practically, this is the exact idea of President Trump: 5 percent overall, 3.5 percent military, typically military expenditures, and 1.5 percent investments and expenditures into critical infrastructure which will be used by NATO forces, like railways and highways and so on and so forth. So practically, we are fully aligned with this idea of President Trump, and we strongly support this idea.”
Mickoski said he was very proud of the speeches that both Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered to Europeans early last year and early this year, respectively. He also referenced a speech Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick gave as well with similar warnings for Europe. Mickoski said he may have been the only European leader clapping for Vance’s speech to the Munich Security Conference.
“I was in the room during both speeches but also for the not officially revealed speech of Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, during the official dinner at the Davos World Business Forum this year. So practically, the two of them had similar speeches conveyed by a different tone, but more or less the messages were the same,” Mickoski said. “Let me start from Vice President Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference back in early 2025. So, according to my humble opinion, I’m not flattering here. But I think that that was a very sovereign and very straightforward speech with a lot of frank messages, real policy-making messages, and very realistic messages. Absolutely, you’re right—probably, I was the only person in the room who was clapping with the hands and trying to support the messages that he conveyed during his speech, and I strongly believe that that kind of sovereign speech is the future of humanity. Otherwise, we will lose our identity and credibility, which is something in the contrary of our policy-making process and probably in the contrary of the United States and President Trump’s policy-making process. More or less the same was rhetoric delivered this year with Rubio, but as you said, with a different tone, and maybe the situation among the European allies is changed a little bit. Now, according to my humble opinion, I think that the messages that are coming from the other side of the ocean are considered much more seriously, and I think that our allies in Europe are trying to remain with very close ties with the President Trump administration nowadays, because to be honest and frank, the United States Armed Forces and administration of President Trump is providing the security umbrella for our continent. I think that you can’t play double games and you can’t enjoy double standards. So practically, either you are a liar or not. So this is not a buffet breakfast table. ‘I would like this to eat and that to eat, not that, I don’t like this and I would like that.’ So practically, this is a process. Either we are all together, or we are alone. It’s like a chain. The chain is solid enough and strong enough, as much as the weakest part of the chain is strong. So practically, if one part of the chain is destroyed, then probably the chain will not exist anymore. So this is the way how, according to my understanding, this is the way how our allies in Europe are thinking at this moment, so we must be together and we must stay together with the President Trump administration because as I said President Trump’s administration is providing too many reasons to support that administration. For us, this is inevitable process as a country, but I think that most of our European allies consider that this is inevitable process as well.”
North Macedonia is also going to be a huge part of the so-called “Vertical Corridor” which will ship American LNG up from Greece through pipelines into Central Europe and Ukraine. Mickoski said there are multiple inter-connectors his country is currently building on its southern border with Greece and on its northern border with Serbia, to help move the project along quickly.
“Now we are building inter-connectors that will connect my country with the south, in Greece, and practically that pipeline will leap all over to the LNG terminal Alexandroupolis,” Mickoski said. “We have four slots reserved at the LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis. So practically, in this inter-connector, this pipeline, this Alexandroupolis terminal will become more effective, but it will not be enough. That’s why we are investing into the northern inter-connector pipeline that will connect our national pipeline with the Serbian national pipeline. In that regard, Alexandroupolis—from Greece to Macedonia and Serbia, all over to Central Europe, to Hungary and to Austria. The capacity of the pipeline is between three and six BCM [billion cubic meters] annually, which will make this pipeline real, tangible competition to the Russian assets in the region. So practically, this is the only project which is the transit-able competitor of the Russian assets in the region, and this is the project that might make doable the ambitions of the President Trump administration for exporting the LNG through Alexandroupolis terminal to Central Europe, and we are developing northern inter-connector by our own financial resources from our budget. But when it comes to the south inter-connector, we are using European funding. So practically, at the beginning of 2028, if everything goes according to the plan that we have foreseen, we will connect Alexandroupolis terminal with Central Europe.”
Mickoski is also trying to build multiple hydropower plants to help generate lots of electricity that and to help water flows in North Macedonia.
“Those two hydropower plants are very important for all of us, but not only for the country and not only for producing electricity,” he said. “Bearing in mind climate changes and global heating, I think that the region will need the additional two reservoir supporters. My country has a wonderful perspective, and this is a magnificent, amazing environment for developing those kind of hydropower plants with the high dams, with a big installed capacity, and this is the only reason why we would like to develop those two hydropower plants first to secure our water supply for the region, and second for the irrigation, and then as a third priority producing electricity—although we are talking about one terawatt hour electricity annually, which is a super big amount of electricity for the size of a country like ours. This is a super big amount of electricity.”
The extra electricity, he said, will help North Macedonia build data centers to harness the power of artificial intelligence and he is holding meetings currently with the CEO of Rumble—the major video streaming platform—Chris Pavlovski, whose ancestors are Macedonian, to talk about building them in his country.
“Everybody now is talking about AI, about artificial intelligence, and practically artificial intelligence without data centers—it’s so you can’t drive your data centers without having a sustainable supply of electricity,” Mickoski said. “This is the only way we are able to drive data centers and how we are able to work on artificial intelligence. Chris is investing a lot with his partners in Europe. I know that they acquired one big company in Germany, and since he has super big patriotic feelings for the country of his roots, of his family’s roots, he wants to invest in Macedonia, and I will meet him this weekend, so we will be able to talk more about his potential investments and the investments of his colleagues into the data centers and what we are able to provide for them. So, practically, when we are talking about with those two hydropower plants, we are talking about the project with the amount of $1.5 billion, and also when we are talking about data centers, we are talking about complete American investment, and we’ll be working to provide all necessary incentives what we are able to provide for them to make that investment doable in the future.”
Read the full article here