site.btaBulgarian Foreign Minister Meets with Turkish, Macedonian Counterparts in New York

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Meets with Turkish, Macedonian Counterparts in New York


New York/Sofia, September 25 (BTA) - Bulgarian Foreign Minister
Daniel Mitov met with his counterparts Mevlut Cavusoglu of
Turkey and Nikola Poposki of Macedonia on September 24 in the
sidelines of the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly in New
York, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry reported on Thursday.

The chief diplomats of Bulgaria and Turkey discussed ways to
boost bilateral cooperation by using available mechanisms and
tapping the full potential of Bulgarian-Turkish relations. Mitov
noted the importance of joint projects, particularly in the
field of energy supply, singling out the construction of a
natural gas interconnector between the two countries.

Mitov also said that the immigrant barriers on the Bulgarian
side of the Bulgarian-Turkish border are only temporary and
should not be viewed as damaging bilateral relations, because
they are simply a part of Sofia's efforts to deal with immigrant
pressure. He stressed that it is essential to sign a trilateral
border control agreement between Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.

Cavusoglu promised to help invigorate contacts between the
competent institutions in the two countries in their joint
effort to handle the increased migration flow through Turkey and
Bulgaria.

Mitov and Cavusoglu discussed the situation in Syria and Iraq
and expressed their firm support for the international efforts
against terrorism, particularly against the Islamic State
militant group.

During the talks between the Foreign Ministers of Bulgaria and
Macedonia, the sides discussed matters of bilateral cooperation
and Macedonia's European and Euro-Atlantic prospects. Mitov and
Poposki confirmed their plans to continue the expert-level
negotiations for a bilateral agreement on good-neighbourly
relations, noting that the next meeting of the respective
working groups will be held later in the autumn.

Mitov and Poposki described as a positive step the sending of
their joint letter of February 19 to European Enlargement
Commissioner Stefan Fule and European Regional Policy
Commissioner Johannes Hahn concerning the funding of the
construction of European Corridor 8. They concurred that the
project is of bilateral, regional and all-European significance.