Good afternoon, and my sincere thanks to the organizers for inviting me to take part in this important commemoration, twenty-five years after those historic days — days that were decisive not only for your country, but for our entire region.

Today, on this panel, we are invited to speak about the future of the Ohrid Agreement and about sustainable peace.

But I would put it somewhat differently:

I believe we should speak about our common future.

The question is: What is the future?

Let me begin with a story from twenty-five years ago. I was here in Skopje, and my friend Lazar Elenovski — who later became a Minister and Ambassador, and whose mother is Albanian and father Macedonian — said to me:

“Let’s go and have a coffee with Tito Petkovski.”

In 2000, Tito Petkovski had been a candidate for President. As we discussed the difficult and delicate situation in the country during those hard days of spring 2001, he told me something that struck me:

“All of this is absurd. Just imagine that next year, we will sit in the same Parliament and in the same Government with those who have gone into the mountains.”

Tito Petkovski's prediction was remarkably accurate. Of course, he was not a fortune-teller. It was his long experience of life and politics that allowed him to be realistic about where events could lead.

So, when I think about our common future, I would like to refer to something I teach at university when I am invited to give lectures. International security systems are generally understood through five major pillars of security.

The first is the economy.

I remember, about ten years ago — and I am sure that my friend Izet Mexhiti remembers it as well, because we were together at a similar event organized at that time by DUI — I told Ali Ahmeti:

“My dear friend, the younger generation will look towards the future. Young people need hope, and hope comes from the economy.”

I still believe exactly the same thing today. North Macedonia was once the poorest republic of the former Yugoslavia. The wealthiest was Slovenia, which today is a member of the European Union.

And, my friends, Slovenia is not even among Europe's very largest economies.

So let us imagine for a moment:

Can we really build a common European future with weak economies?

There is only one answer: Strong cooperation to strengthen all of our small economies.

The second pillar is healthcare.

I remember the terrible tragedy when the modular hospital in Tetovo caught fire during the COVID-19 pandemic. Death does not look you in the eyes and ask whether you are Macedonian, Albanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, or of any other nationality.

Just as we all deserve a good life, we also deserve dignity at the end of our lives, whenever that moment may come. Therefore, if we speak about the European future of your country and of our region, that future cannot exist without high-quality healthcare systems.

The third pillar is demography.

I remember a meeting with Pope Francis, whom I had known since he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2008. He put his finger directly on the wound when he said:

“Europe is entering a demographic winter.”

The departure of young people, declining birth rates, and the arrival of workers from Asia are now an increasingly visible phenomenon throughout our region. Let me put it in a very simple way.

My cousin in Leskovik is not a shepherd looking after his cows — and he had to bring a worker from India. If we do not want our descendants to judge us harshly when the fiftieth anniversary of the Ohrid Agreement arrives, we need a profound reflection on demography.

The fourth pillar is the environment. Every year we see forests destroyed, followed by natural disasters with consequences that can last for decades.

In Albania, we experienced a terrible earthquake in 2019. And here in Skopje, you know very well the devastation caused by the earthquake of the 1960s. So, my friends, we cannot have a future without a healthy and protected environment in which to live. We cannot expect someone from the United States or from Russia to come and protect our mountains, our forests, our rivers and our beautiful lakes. We have to protect them ourselves. This is part of our common future.

The fifth pillar is war and peace.

And if we do not want war, we need lasting and sustainable peace. But sustainable peace does not come by itself. To have peace, we must keep those other four pillars of security in our minds — every day, every hour — and work relentlessly for the future of our children.

We are living in a world changing at the speed of the internet. We are entering a world in which artificial intelligence will become more present in our lives every single day.

And if we do not want history to judge us harshly, our universities should aim to be among the top fifty universities in Europe. Our hospitals should aim for the same level of excellence.

Our countries — beautiful, modest countries with enormous potential — have every opportunity to become among the most successful places in our part of Europe.

And our young people, and the generations that will follow them, deserve prosperity, dignity and security. Let me conclude this reflection on the future by quoting a remarkable European statesman of the past, the former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who once said:

“Experience is the sum of all the disappointments life has given us.”

And perhaps this is the greatest guarantee for a future of peace and prosperity: the experience we have gained — an experience that goes back to the painful and bloody wars of the former Yugoslavia.

We have already paid a very high price for the lessons of history. The responsibility of our generation is to make sure that the next generation does not have to pay the same price.

Thank you.

Remarks of Ilir Kulla on the 25th anniversary of Ohrid Agreement*