- Under the law, the Deputy Minister heads the Ministry when the Minister is absent or not in a position to perform their duties. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, due to the nature of the post, is the most frequently absent Minister, which means that comparatively I am one of the most burdened Deputy Ministers. In addition to my everyday financial and personnel-related duties, as well as my regular contacts with the diplomatic corps, my job description also includes a series of engagements in the Government and the government bodies, as well as the Parliament and its committees. I am also standing in for the Minister whenever he is on a trip, mostly attending multilateral conferences where Macedonia should be represented at ministerial level. The area of my responsibilities also includes protocol activities: accompanying senior delegations visiting Skopje, as well as the head of state and the head of government during their trips abroad. It is also my obligation to take part in diverse ad-hoc commissions and bodies in the Government and the Ministry. As you can see, it is a fairly broad line of activities, requiring preparations, time and energy. Hence my working day usually lasts 10 to 14 hours. We have a young, ambitious and diligent Government, which leaves little room for thinking – you either manage to keep up or drop out of the game. There are no afternoon coffees with your friends, no weekend socializing with your buddies and there is little time left for certain small pleasures, such as going to the theater or visiting relatives. Because there is a mobile phone at any time on which the familiar voice of the secretary, whether you are in a suit or in a sweat shirt, gives you orders, or instructions if you prefer - “the Minister asks you to sit in for him at the Government’s meeting,” “in half an hour you have an extraordinary meeting of the Committee,” “the ambassador wants to see you immediately” and so on and so forth. The Deputy Minister is a “button man”, always in a get-set-go position for a sprint, or as my father says, a fill-in.

- As a journalist, you mostly covered issues related to security and defense. Also, you followed all the major events concerning Macedonia’s NATO integration. How do you see Macedonia’s position regarding its Euro-Atlantic integration now, from the point of view of the office you fill?

- In December 1993, as a reporter from Parliament for the daily newspaper, Nova Makedonija, I happened to be on duty during the meeting of Parliament when the Declaration on Joining NATO was passed. NATO has since become my professional fate in a way. I would like that fate to get reaffirmed with an official invitation for Macedonia to join the Alliance now that I am Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. From a personal perspective, that would close a chapter of my professional life too. NATO means to Macedonia a lot more. A lot more from sheer integration into the world’s greatest and mightiest security structure. In spite of all the problems troubling it in the years after independence, the Republic of Macedonia succeeded in becoming a significant contributor to security on a larger scale. Joining NATO will give confirmation to the coming of age of a country that had to weather a sea of troubles to find its place under the sun.

- You are directly responsible at the MFA for the organization of the EAPC Forum that should take place in Ohrid in end June 2007. How far have the preparations gone and what are your expectations from the Forum?

- On 28 and 29 June this year, in Ohrid, the security Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council Forum will take place. It is expected to be attended by over 60 countries, represented by their ministers of defense and foreign affairs. According to my information, this will be the grandest political meeting of its kind ever to be organized in our country. From the organizational viewpoint, it is a great challenge, and yet the political relevance of the event is even greater. To this end, the Government established a coordination body doing all the preparations for the Forum. The Minister without Portfolio, Mr. Adnan Kahil, is in charge of it. I am one of his deputies. A NATO inspection team stayed in Macedonia for while to check the preparations, while a few days ago we received from Brussels the detailed organization instructions, by the signing of which we, in fact, officially took over the responsibilities. They will be initialed in March, when a NATO inspection team comes again. In short, the preparations are impeccable and hopefully so will be the Forum.

- Traditionally, the deputy ministers are part of the cross-department teams within the Government. How do you see the MFA’s coordination with the other government institutions as far as conducting foreign policy is concerned?

- The Government functions as a team in which everybody knows their place, rights and responsibilities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is part of the system, having closely defined relations with the other departments. Particularly concerning the Euro-Atlantic integration, a lot is expected from us, because this year is crucial for the Republic of Macedonia in so many ways, but primarily in terms of our responsibilities related to the invitation for joining NATO and meeting the criteria for starting membership negotiations with the EU. Our cooperation with the other departments and government bodies is flawless, not only because regulations say so, but also because of the personal desire of us all to succeed. I notice this personal thread in everyone’s efforts.

- You have recently returned from Canada, where apart from meeting Canadian officials and discussing bilateral relations and NATO, you also had a series of meetings with representatives of the Macedonian diaspora. How do you see this visit and what are the possible ways of building Macedonia’s relations with its diaspora?

- Right. Macedonia’s NATO integration dominated my working visit to Canada. Meeting senior officials from the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department and knowing this was a country offering us huge support in getting integrated with NATO, which was demonstrated best when the closing document of the Riga Summit was drafted, I kept expressing Macedonia’s gratitude. Do you know what the reply was? “Your country deserves to be a NATO member. We are not doing you a favor, we only wish to give you what you deserve, what you worked for. We should thank you for all that your country is doing for NATO.” The Canadians know perfectly well that a small Balkan country with piles of inner problems stands shoulder to shoulder with them as part of the mission in Afghanistan. Macedonia is present in Iraq too, and has recently gone to Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. And they appreciate it.

A portion of my stay in Canada was marked by meetings and discussions with Macedonian immigrants in Toronto and the nearby cities of Markham and Mississauga. What I already knew about our community in this country, I saw it then with my own eyes. The Macedonians in Canada, estimated at about 150,000-200,000, are the best organized and best coordinated, as well as the most functional Macedonian community worldwide. I think that we as a state can learn a lot from them. Given than I myself come from a family of emigrants scattered across the world, meeting my fellow countrymen was a particularly emotional experience for me. It is a fascinating feeling.

- The Macedonian public still remembers you as an excellent journalist? To what extent is your journalist experience helping you in diplomacy?

- Following former journalists’ careers, I developed a theory of my own about this profession. Journalism is not a craft, as it is usually said. It is a philosophy, or an outlook of a sort to the world around us. Once a journalist, always a journalist. Only not as someone who simply writes down or records events, bus as person with a sense, a person with criteria and a capacity to distinguish between the important and unimportant, to appreciate quality and see what others can’t, at the same time defying time and life with his optimism, positive energy and inner dynamism. I quit journalism as a profession as early as 1999, but I realized shortly afterwards that it had not quit me. Although I changed a lot of professions since, although I am a senior official now, I always present myself using the same words, “Zoran Petrov, a journalist”.