In an interview for Telma TV on Wednesday, North Macedonia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani said that the October 2 meeting of the expert working groups of his and Bulgaria's Foreign Ministries assessed the level of bilateral ties with a focus on sectoral cooperation, the 2017 Treaty of Friendship, Goodneighbourliness and Cooperation, and Skopje's EU Path. In his words, what happened in relation to the associations of Bulgarians in North Macedonia has caused a crisis in the bilateral ties and the communication has been mostly on consular matters, but now an attempt is being made to normalise the political communication as well.
“I believe that if we do not communicate, someone else will interfere in this communication and divert it towards another path. The press releases of the two Foreign Affairs Ministries were identical, but sometimes we consider joint press releases a success. This joint press release reads that the meeting [of the expert working groups] was constructive, regular. In the crisis over the situation with the associations, we did not have political communication and if there were meetings, it was hard for us to reach a joint press release. That is why I am saying that we had fragile relations, we are still building trust after that crisis in our relations,” Osmani said. He explained that the October 2 meeting was a quality one in that it was held and the sides talked openly about their problems, exchanged opionions and concluded that there should be more meetings like that one.
Osmani also said that nothing can reduce the importance and urgency of the constitutional changes that North Macedonia has to make so as to use the EU’s open door because of Europe’s geopolitical development. Otherwise, Skopje might have to wait for a new similar chance with decades. According to him, the debate led by the opposition in his country over the amendments is irrational, because the opposition lacks a consistent position on the matter, and all representatives of EU Member States he has talked with “are wondering at the opposition’s lack of seriousness, which either does not understand [the significance of] the moment or is blinded by the forthcoming elections”.
Osmani reiterated that it was Skopje that shifted the weight of the discourse with Sofia from the bilateral historical issues to those of minority rights - a field where North Macedonia is the best, and the constitutional revisions are in Skopje’s interest. The negotiating framework with the EU is a wall against new demands from Bulgaria, and the implementation of the Treaty of Friendship is a matter of bilateral ties, he noted.
/DS/
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