Nikola Dimitrov (born 30 September 1972) is a Macedonian politician and diplomat, who has served as

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

for

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

from 31 May 2017 to 30 August 2020. He also served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2000 and

Macedonian ambassador to the United States The North Macedonia ambassador in Washington, D.C. is the official representative of the Government of North Macedonia to the Government of the United States. The United States formally recognized North Macedonia in 1994, with full diplomatic ...

and then the Netherlands. In 2014, he turned down an appointment as Macedonia's new ambassador to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Dimitrov, together with his Greek counterpart

Nikos Kotzias Nikolaos Kotzias, GCM ( el, Νικόλαος Κοτζιάς; born 21 December 1950) is a Greek politician and diplomat who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2018. He was Foreign Minister from 23 September 2015 until his resign ...

, signed the

Prespa agreement The Prespa agreement,; In mk, Договорот од Преспа, translit=Dogovorot od Prespa or Преспански договор, ''Prespanski dogovor'' also known as the Treaty of Prespa, the Prespes deal or the Prespa accord, is an agre ...

in 2018 in efforts of resolving the

Macedonia naming dispute The use of the country name "Macedonia (terminology), Macedonia" was disputed between Greece and the North Macedonia, Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) between 1991 and 2019. The dispute was a source of instability in the Balkans#W ...

. As a result of this agreement, his country changed its name to North Macedonia.

Career

Dimitrov started his governmental career in 1996 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an

international human rights law International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, ag ...

yer, and was promoted to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2000. In 2002 he was named the second

, succeeding Ljubica Acevska. This made him the youngest diplomat in Washington, D.C. at the time; this was part of a trend of generational transitions in Eastern European governments: "replac ngthe old guard with young, Western-educated technocrats". In October 2009 he took up a new post as Macedonia's ambassador to the Netherlands. After the end of his term there in March 2013, it had originally been planned that he would take up the ambassadorship to Germany, but instead that post went to Nikola Kolev. In February 2014, it was announced that Dimitrov had turned down an appointment as Macedonia's ambassador to Moscow. Dimitrov was Special Envoy in the talks for overcoming the name differences under the auspices of the United Nations in the period 2003-2008. From 2008 until 2011 he was a co-representative of the then Republic of Macedonia before the International Court of Justice in the case against Greece concerning the interpretation and implementation of the Interim Accord signed by both countries in 1995. Having been involved in the diplomatic efforts for the name dispute for years, in 2017 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new government led by

Zoran Zaev Zoran Zaev ( mk, Зоран Заев, ; born 8 October 1974) is a Macedonian economist and politician who served as prime minister of North Macedonia from May 2017 to January 2020, and again from August 2020 to January 2022. Prior to entering ...

, leader of

SDSM The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалдемократски сојуз на Македонија – СДСМ, ''Socijaldemokratski Sojuz na Makedonija'' – SDSM, sq, Lidhja socialdemokrate e Maqedonisë – LSDM) is a ...

, which pledged to solve the disputes with neighboring countries and to improve the cooperation with them. As head of the Macedonian diplomacy, Dimitrov signed the

on 17 June 2018 in a high-level ceremony at the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

border village of

Psarades Psarades ( el, Ψαράδες), is a village and a Communities and Municipalities of Greece, community of the Prespes, Prespes municipality. Before the 2011 local government reform it was part of the municipality of Prespes, of which it was a muni ...

Lake Prespa The Lake Prespa is located on the tripoint of North Macedonia, Albania, and Greece. It is a system of two lakes separated by an isthmus: the Great Prespa Lake, divided between the three countries, and the Little Prespa Lake, mostly within Greece ...

. He is a former member of The Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group.

Personal life

Nikola's father Dimitar Dimitrov is a

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

of the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom ...

. Nikola did his

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

at the

Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje The Saints Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje ( mk, Универзитет „Св. Кирил и Методиј“ во Скопје) is the oldest and largest List of universities in North Macedonia, public university in North Macedonia. ...

, and his

LL.M A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

in the United Kingdom, where he specialised in

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

. He has been married twice and has three children. Two of wich are 16 and one 22.

Awards and honors

*: On September 9, 2019, Dimitrov received the "EWB Award for the Contribution to the European Integration of the Region" by portal

European Western Balkans European Western Balkans (sometimes abbreviated EWB) is a web portal that focuses on the Western Balkans countries and reports on development of the European Union's enlargement policy towards the states of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, ...

for "demonstrating extraordinary efforts in bringing his country and the region closer to the EU, promoting the spirit of cooperation and peace in regional affairs, with a special emphasis on normalization of relations between Greece and North Macedonia, as well as an exemplary support for democratic reforms and overcoming the burden of the past in the Western Balkans”.

References

External links

*
Interview with HE Nikola Dimitrov
24 October 2011, on ''

The First Post ''The First Post'' was a British daily online news magazine based in London. Launched in August 2005, it was sold to Dennis Publishing in 2008 and retitled ''The Week'' at the end of 2014. In its current format, it publishes news, current af ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Dimitrov, Nikola 1972 births Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje alumni Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Ambassadors of North Macedonia to the Netherlands Ambassadors of North Macedonia to the United States Foreign Ministers of North Macedonia Living people Macedonian jurists Politicians from Skopje Diplomats from Skopje Social Democratic Union of Macedonia politicians

Career

Personal life

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links