A delegation of Macedonian-Americans took part in a February 7th White House Forum with Ethnic American Leaders. UMD Chairman Stojan Nikolov and UMD member Marija Nikolov traveled from Massachusetts, UMD Advisory Council Member Mark Mitskovski traveled from Buffalo, New York, and UMD Los Angeles Representative Dimitar Nasev traveled from Los Angeles, California to join UMD Board Member and Treasurer Lidija Stojkoska, and UMD President Metodija A. Koloski for series of briefings on immigration, healthcare, the economy, and foreign policy at the White House. Click here for pictures.
President Obama’s Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting Ben Rhodes, among senior National Security Council Staff, and staff from the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and the National Economic Council briefed around 100 ethnic American leaders on the Administration’s policies regarding immigration, healthcare, the economy, and foreign policy.
During the foreign policy briefing, UMD President Metodija A. Koloski stressed to NSC Staff the need for more leadership from the Administration on NATO enlargement, not just for Macedonia, but also for the rest of the Southeast Europe region. UMD also reiterated its position to bring Poland into the Visa Waiver Program, which would pave the way for other countries like Macedonia to enter the VWP.
In addition to Macedonian-Americans, Albanian, Arab, Armenian, Bosnian, Croatian, Greek, Irish, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian Sheikh, Syrian, Turkish, Ukrainian-Americans attended the Forum, among other ethnic leaders. UMD thanks the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for organizing this forum to engage in dialogue with all of these ethnic American communities.