Address by the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov at the 4th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations held in Doha, the State of Qatar:

Your Highness, Sheikh Hamad bin Kalifa At-Thani,
Distinguished Excellencies,
Dear Guests,

Let me first of all extend my gratitude to our generous host, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Kalifa Al-Thani. Your Highness, we highly appreciate your courage and vision to embark on promoting and advancing the world we live in and yet we live in times of great changes. I would like to congratulate you wholeheartedly for this initiative, to sit together at the same table, people from various countries, different religions. We all speak different languages but we are all committed to ensure better future for our children, for our countries, and thus, to the humanity in general. At the same time, I welcome the initiative and congratulate President Fisher who will be hosting the next Summit of the Alliance of Civilizations in 2013.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, more than ever, it is necessary such meetings at the highest level to be organized, which will enable us to acknowledge the values of our cultures, not excluding the challenges they face. The Alliance of Civilizations, the Dialogue among Civilizations is what we missed for a long time. Therefore, my country, the Republic of Macedonia, aware of its unique reality, stands ready to share its valuable experience in these areas and is very actively and devotedly involved in such initiatives.

Better mutual understanding will help us realize that the principles every human being is led by are the same, regardless of people’s origin. Those principles are: desire for freedom, equality, respect, dignity. I believe that unity among nations will prevail.

Not a single great culture or civilization has been developed in isolation, however, it has emerged through constant cooperation, competition and, unfortunately, very often, through confrontation with other cultures and civilizations. History also testifies that there are two primary reasons for the decline and devastation of cultures and civilizations. The first one is cutting off the cultural links with other civilizations. The second one is the exhaustive conflicts which always lead to destruction, casualties and spiritual wounds which take too long to be healed. The reason for such a collision is certainly the lack of dialogue, understanding and mutual respect. On the contrary, collaboration and endorsement of the world of diversity has always resulted in long-lasting values and essential knowledge.

Our civilizations have always been, for centuries and millennia, intertwined and they enrich each other, thanks to the spiritual energy present in the multi-directional civilization and cultural corridors. Our goal, here and today, is to reaffirm the need of building new close relations with other religions and civilizations.

Dear Guests,

The new time ahead of us requires a new paradigm. As geo-politics leaves room for geo-culture and geo-profit, we need cooperation among civilizations instead of conflicts. Prerequisites for cooperation among civilizations do exist; however, they only need to be utilized. That is the missing chain. That is the chain that will put culture in function of development. That is the chain that will bring multiplied benefit to all of us. Indeed, this will not be possible without action, involvement and commitment. On the contrary, what has been neglected in the past, when various regions throughout the world were striving for their own consolidation, nowadays, needs to be compensated with a stronger intensity.

I am confident that this Forum will enable us to find solutions to some of these essential challenges.

Thank you.