site.btaNorth Macedonia PM Dimitar Kovachevski Arrives in Sofia, Governments to Hold Joint Meeting

Sofia, January 24 (BTA) - The Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovachevski, arrives an official visit to Sofia on January 24 and 25 at the invitation of his Bulgarian counterpart. A joint meeting of the governments of the two countries will be held on the second day of the visit.

The official welcoming ceremony for PM Kovachevski will take place on January 24 in St. Alexander Nevsky Square. The two prime ministers will lay wreaths at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier.

The visit follows a visit to Skopje by the Bulgarian government leader on January 18, when the two sides declared a will to open a new chapter in bilateral relations by broadening cooperation into practical areas and addressigng sticking points.

Sofia has consistently blocked the start of Skopje's EU accession talks, insisting that it should first meet the conditions in the bilateral Goodneighbourliness Treaty, which include abandoning hate speech against Bulgaria, the distortion of historical facts in textbooks and elsewhere and the discrimination against its citizens who identify themselves as Bulgarians. MT/RY/LN/