DUBAI: North Macedonia is opening an embassy in Riyadh, and its foreign minister has told Arab News he wants it up and running within months.
For a small Balkan country of under two million people, it is a deliberate step. Timcho Mucunski, who serves as minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, said Skopje is working with the Kingdom on investment projects and on closer political cooperation.
"One of the decisions that we made very recently was to open a new embassy in Saudi Arabia," Mucunski told Arab News on the sidelines of the World Economic Fourm in Dubai. "We hope that sometime at the beginning of the next calendar year, we will be fully functional in the Saudi capital."
Trade between the two already exists, he said, but it needs a push.
His plan starts with the business community rather than governments. The first move will be to bring the chambers of commerce of both countries together and let them work out where the opportunities lie.
"Whether it's cooperation in the field of energy, or cooperation in the field of ICT, I think that there are many opportunities in front of us," he said.
He was candid about where things stand today. Asked whether Saudi Arabia has invested in North Macedonia, he said there is "nothing of a larger scale" yet. Once the two business communities meet, he believes that could change quickly.
Friends in Abu Dhabi and Doha
Saudi Arabia may be the new focus, but it is not Skopje's first door in the Gulf.
Mucunski described relations with the UAE and Qatar as "very diverse and positive," with money moving both ways in agriculture, development and defense.
Security is a big part of those ties. Both Gulf states are NATO partner countries, and North Macedonia has been a full member of the alliance since 2020. That shared link, Mucunski said, makes defense and security cooperation "a very integral part of the relationship."
He has visited both countries several times since becoming foreign minister in June 2024, and said he intends to keep building on what he called "the excellent opportunities before us."
A crossroads country
Mucunski is clearly keen to correct any image of the Balkans as a troubled neighborhood.
"As we are an EU candidate country as well as a NATO member state, one of the things that we pride ourselves on is being an anchor of stability in our region," he said.
Geography is part of his pitch. North Macedonia sits where two major European transport routes meet. Corridor 8 runs from the Adriatic to the Black Sea, and Corridor 10 links Central Europe to the Greek port of Thessaloniki. Skopje is investing heavily in both, along with efforts to diversify its energy supply at home.
The aim, he said, is for North Macedonia to be "a proactive contributor to regional as well as European stability."
That message carries extra weight with war still raging on the continent.
"Unfortunately, with the Russian aggression against Ukraine, there have been severe security, economic as well as social consequences within our continent," Mucunski said. "But we hope for a peaceful and just solution as soon as possible."