Relations between Bulgaria and North Macedonia escalated again due to the confrontational policy initiated by the government of VMRO-DPMNE. It is caused by the absolute incompetence and amateurism of those people who were not in the government of the country for a long time.
This is what the diplomat and former chairman of the Foreign Policy Commission Dimitar Gardev told FOCUS.
The call for resignation from the Bulgarian side of the North Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Nikoloski is because of his harsh and rude statements towards the Bulgarian president and the Bulgarian society. "And no matter how much he states that he has no right to be asked to resign, he has no right to give qualifications to the head of state of a neighboring country that is a member of the European Union, to which they aspire,”, Gardev was categorical.
Delyan Peevski demanded that Nikoloski be declared persona non grata. "There is such a practice in diplomatic relations. Every country has the right to refuse meetings with a government official who makes confrontational statements and causes tension in bilateral relations, and to have his working relationship isolated. If he is a diplomatic official, he can be declared persona non grata without any explanation by the host country – there is no need for an explanation”, the diplomat explained.
Dimitar Gardev pointed out that the rulers in Skopje have several conditions towards Bulgaria and the European Union, which show their incompetence. One of them is the condition that the Bulgarians should be included in the Macedonian constitution as a state-creating nation to be fulfilled with consequence after North Macedonia is accepted into the European Union. "It is clearly written in the documents of the European Union and in the negotiating framework that this is a precondition. This is not a condition for ending negotiations, it is a condition for their beginning, a political precondition. In all documents of meetings of the European Union, where the progress of Macedonia is discussed, in the subsequent protocols this point is constantly mentioned. Macedonia does not fulfill the precondition”, he explained.
After the last visit of Prime Minister Hristijan Mitskoski to Brussels, the Macedonian side is insisting that Bulgaria recognize the Macedonian minority, Gardev noted. "The negotiations between the candidate member state and the European Union are asymmetrical. The candidate member state cannot wish to change the constitutions of the member states of the European Union. The very principle of the negotiations is to change the legislative framework of the candidate member country, not the other way around, the diplomat stressed.
Gardev noted that Mitskoski has repeatedly stated that he wants the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborship with Bulgaria to be denounced. "To denounce him – that's what I'm saying, let's not bother with them. Without a treaty, there is no membership in the European Union, because a country that declares that it is not a friend and a good neighbor to a member state cannot be accepted into a union where absolutely everything opens up – internal market, finance, free movement of people, goods and capital, common foreign policy, common security and defense policy, with one country that says it is not a friend, he pointed out.
The administration of our western neighbor, according to him, is making a sharp turn towards Belgrade, Beijing and Moscow. "And here there is no longer any doubt after the signed loan. Chinese banks gave Hungary a loan of 1 billion, and Hungary gave half of this loan to RSM. China's pure interest is behind this. This also happened to Montenegro, which similarly took a loan from China for a highway and failed to pay them back, and China imposed political conditions. Brussels had to stand behind Montenegro, which trapped it. Therefore, all these loans and credits are agreed with Brussels, because suddenly the Union can be certified with a loan that it did not ask for, Dimitar Gurdev explained.
With the loan in question, China is financing its transport corridor from Thessaloniki through Skopje, Croatia, Belgrade, Budapest and Austria. That is why Corridor No. 8, which is important for European security and the security of the region, has been stopped. "European funds were allocated along this corridor. "Suddenly, the rulers in Skopje decided that it was their money and they could transfer it to another corridor - No. 10, and of course, they received a slap from Brussels," the diplomat explained.
However, both China and the Russian Federation provide loans rather than grants from funds. "They don't have that kind of toolkit. The loan was granted at an interest rate of 3.7%. Macedonian society will see the difference and the price very soon. If they stop with their anti-Bulgarian campaign, with the old Yugoslav anti-Bulgarian doctrine, they can immediately receive these funds from the pre-accession funds of the European Union. With Macron's amended acceptance methodology, North Macedonia and the new candidates have the right to receive money from the European Union funds themselves. They will also lose this because of a loan with interest from another axis. Therefore, their policy will fail and this will lead to the resignation of this government. I don't need to be a prophet to tell you that they will not fulfill their entire mandate,” predicted Gardev.