PM Hristijan Mickoski: The Pipeline That Replaces Russian Gas with American Gas

I also want to point out that, as the Prime Minister said, they had to wait a long time to get into NATO. And as one of the things that President Trump has talked about time and time and time again about NATO, is that they want American money, they want American participation, but they're not willing to pay. They're not willing to pay their fair share. And I do want to point out that your country, small as it is, is contributing one of the biggest contributions per capita to NATO. So thank you very much. We are above 2%. We are completely aligned and supporting President Trump's politics. And I think that 2% should be floor, not ceiling. I think President Trump, if he's listening to this, will be thrilled to hear that. The other thing that I think he'll be very thrilled to hear is one of the big issues in Europe right now, or one of the big issues in the world, is energy, energy production. And when President Trump talks about energy dominance, he doesn't say energy independence, he says energy dominance, he says drill, baby, drill, what he means is the United States now has the ability, with our own natural resources, to get oil and natural gas. We have more of it than anybody else in the world. We can become the world's energy supplier. Just us alone. We can replace Russia, replace the Middle East. We would be the dominant energy supplier to the world, and we would set the price at a very low price, which works for us, doesn't work for anybody else. You're a key part of this equation. Yes. Because if the United States exports liquefied natural gas, which we have in abundance, cheap, safe, wonderful, and it can go to Europe, it changes the entire strategic equation of Europe, and really of the world. So explain to me very quickly how you're going to do that for us. That equation now is missing pipeline that is crossing over my country, and we are building that pipeline now. Practically, we are building our southern interconnector with Greece. That's right. We will start building northern interconnector with Serbia, practically using the Alexandropoli terminal. American gas will be super big competition of existing pipeline, which is called South. Maybe you are aware about North Stream, but no one is talking about South Stream, which is not on the top of Europe, which is on the bottom of Europe. And there is flowing Russian gas. So American gas through this pipeline, which will cross over my country, will be a super big competition of the Russian gas to the central Europe and to the western Europe. That's why we are very important. And that's why we are strategic partners. So you may have walked into here wondering, what am I going to listen to somebody talk about North Macedonia? I can't even find it on a map. Now you realize it is, in fact, one of America's great allies and doing great things with us. So thank you, Mr. Popovic. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation. And God bless American and Macedonian people. Thank you.