The foreign ministers of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia Velislava Petrova-Chamova and Timcho Mucunski will hold a meeting in Sofia on October 8. The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accepted the request for a conversation, reported „24 chasa.mk“.
The meeting will take place within the framework of the international ministerial conference on Corridor VIII, which will be held in the Bulgarian capital on October 7 and 8. Mucunski will also attend the forum, and the host is the Bulgarian Foreign Minister.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has defined the possible conversation as „part of the regular dialogue between the two countries“, reported the Bulgarian National Radio. According to the radio, a note requesting a bilateral meeting was sent to Sofia.
The initiative came from the Macedonian side after advice from the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. During a meeting with the Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski, she recommended that Mucunski seek a conversation with his Bulgarian counterpart in order to “restore the country's path to negotiations with the EU“, BNR reported.
The last official meeting between Mucunski and Petrova-Chamova was in May on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Sweden. According to “24 chasa.mk“ the conversation then ended without significant progress and without a change in the positions of both sides.
The upcoming conversation will take place against the backdrop of an intensified diplomatic dialogue between Sofia and Skopje. It is expected to provide an opportunity to discuss bilateral relations and the European perspective of the Republic of North Macedonia.
Sources: focus-news.net, bnrnews.bg