Hristijan Mickoski, the prime minister of North Macedonia, propagated political propaganda against his neighbors while using the CPAC platform to wrongly depict his government as pro-American and anti-China, rather than encouraging constructive engagement, BGNES reported.
Initially, Mickoski's assertion that North Macedonia was "the missing piece in China's economic mosaic in the region" was untrue.  His administration actually strengthened Chinese sway over North Macedonia.  His government used Hungary, which is frequently viewed as a channel for Chinese money, to obtain a $500 million loan.  China has gradually expanded its influence in North Macedonia over the last ten years through state-sponsored enterprises like Sinohydro and COSCO, infrastructure projects, and railway takeovers. 

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation's analysis places North Macedonia third out of 17 Central and Eastern European nations in terms of Chinese influence, which runs counter to Mickoski's depiction of his government as opposing China.
 Furthermore, throughout his CPAC presentation, Mickoski purposefully avoided bringing up his nation's formal name, North Macedonia, instead using ambiguous terms like "my country."  This is in line with his and the VMRO-DPMNE's rejection of the Prespa Agreement with Greece, which was mediated with assistance from the US and the EU.  Also, by frequently using offensive language and provocations, his administration has disregarded the Treaty of Good Neighbourly Relations with Bulgaria.

Mickoski's political stance is also concerning. He clearly deviates from NATO and EU priorities, as evidenced by his tight links to Vladimir Putin's main supporter, the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić. Ivan Stoilkovic, a prominent pro-Russian Serbian nationalist and one of his deputy prime ministers, called the Srebrenica atrocity a "necrophiliac Disneyland" in 2024. Additionally, he extended an invitation to Milorad Dodik, the US-sanctioned head of the Bosnian Serbs, to travel to North Macedonia, which Dodik took as an opportunity to disparage NATO and extol Putin. Mickoski's emphasis on regional instability rather than conservative beliefs is evident in these actions.

Mickoski also made egregiously untrue statements during his CPAC address, such as claiming that half a million of the "two million" people who left North Macedonia—basically the entire population of the country—now reside in the United States.  Additionally, he misrepresented the location of Europe's oldest university, which was actually a medieval Bulgarian literary school rather than a university, by saying that it was situated on the shores of Lake Ohrid. | BGNES