site.btaBulgarian PM, FM Cancel Meeting with Macedonian President

Sofia, June 14 (BTA) - The press office of the Bulgarian government confirmed that the Thursday meetings of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva with the visiting Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov have been cancelled. "We don't want to interfere in the home affairs of our neighbour [Macedonia]. Our position [on the solution to the Macedonia-Greece name dispute] is clear and principled, as is that of the entire international community. The position of the President of the Republic of Macedonia is equally clear. The Bulgarian government sees no point in being used in the internal political debates of Skopje," said the government press office.

The announcement comes a day after it was reported that the Macedonian President walked out of a meeting with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov where they informed him of the agreement reached with Greece in the name dispute.

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has hailed the naming solution and said it opens the way for Macedonia's EU and NATO integration.

The government press office also said Thursday that "integration into the EU and NATO is of key importance to the future development of our neighbour [Macedonia] and must not be put to question".

President Gjorge Ivanov arrived on an official visit to Bulgaria Thursday morning at the invitation of President Rumen Radev. The two presidents had a one-on-one meeting.

Approached by journalists later on Thursday, the Bulgarian PM commented that his country is in no way interfering either in the work of Macedonia's institutions or in the name dispute with Greece. According to him, this dispute has continued for decades and blocks Macedonia's development. In his words, this is an unpopular and difficult decision for both Greek and Macedonian peoples but if the issue is not solved, Macedonia has no chance to join either NATO or the EU.

Borissov said he is a friend of both President Ivanov and Prime Minister Zaev and praised them for the big risk taken to resolve the name dispute. This is an issue that Greece and Macedonia have to solve on their own, the Bulgarian PM underscored. In his words, if an agreement is not reached, he will become a total pessimist about the Balkans' development because "Macedonia is a like a stone placed in the middle that, if well tightened, keeps the entire construction standing".

Borissov described as treachery a meeting between him and Ivanov after Wednesday's 120-second-long meeting between Macedonia's President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. "It would have been unfair to their efforts, that is why I decided that today is not the time [to meet with Ivanov]," the Bulgarian PM said. In his words, President Ivanov is a guest of Bulgaria's head of State; if he were a guest of the Prime Minister, Borissov would have met with him.

By cancelling the meeting, Borissov said he showed his attitude towards his Greek and Macedonian counterparts, Alexis Tsipras and Zoran Zaev. Despite them being his political opponents as European socialists, they are courageous and responsible people because they have committed to the name dispute's resolution.

The cancelled meetings triggered immediate reactions, both positive and negative.

The power-sharing United Patriots coalition member commended the decision of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister and said it is a token of support for the Macedonian government and Prime Minister Zaev, who signed a Treaty of Friendship with Bulgaria. MP Yulian Angelov said that "we have an obligation to support exactly this kind of governments: which want to solve the problems of the Balkans". He said the decision is also a sign of denunciation of Macedonia's policy a year ago, to which President Ivanov remains committed. "It is a policy aimed against all of Macedonia's neighbours by encouraging a hate language and inciting problems and keeping them open for decades.

Angelov also said that Bulgaria is strongly committed to the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkans and "cannot afford to support leaders who work against it". "All the more so that many people in Macedonia have Bulgarian roots and it is our obligation to stand up for them," he added.

MP Kristian Vigenin of the Bulgarian Socialist Party is of the opposite position and sees the cancellation of the meetings as "quite a direct interference in a domestic policy dispute in Macedonia". The former Bulgarian foreign minister argues that the Bulgarian government should have sent "a more positive message". "It is my belief that the Prime Minister [of Bulgaria] should have told the [Macedonian] President that the situation in Macedonia calls for more wisdom and a stronger commitment to seeking a solution: not political demonstrations of the kind we saw yesterday","said Vigenin.

He said that the cancellation of the meetings is unprecedented in Bulgaria's latest history. "There may have been refused meetings but not when a meeting has been scheduled in advance," he said.

Following are comments from the social media:

Ilian Vassilev, former Bulgarian ambassador to Moscow and
political and economic analyst:

This decision has a wrong logic. The idea was probably to put the Macedonian President in isolation by showing him that his position is unacceptable for the EU and for Bulgaria. But the devil is in the details. With this position we interfere in the internal affairs of Macedonia by clearly taking sides instead of keeping our position as an external observer and our chances to mediate.

Radan Kanev, former MP and leader of the Right-wing Democrats
for Strong Bulgaria:

Some days are good for politics. Both the decision of Borissov to cancel his meeting with Gjorge Ivanov and Radev's statement that he hails the efforts towards Euro-Atlantic integration and accepts the results of the name talks, deserve credit. Today Bulgaria showed that it has responsible state institutions acting in a strategic manner.