site.btaNorth Macedonia's PM Answers Question on Whether Trump Administration Can Help Resolve Country's Dispute with Bulgaria

"Slowly but surely, the new normal will spread, and from Washington - it will establish itself all over the world, and North Macedonia is among the first to support this new normal," North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, who has made three visits to Washington since the middle of 2024, when VMRO-DPMNE formed a government, told a press conference on Monday.

"I believe that with the contacts we have with President Trump's inner circle, we can only gain, not lose. The bilateral dispute that we have with our eastern neighbour [Bulgaria] is a dispute that has nothing to do with the values of the 21st century and I believe that as soon as possible we should formally start negotiations with the EU, which are part of this bilateral dispute. All the attributes that are part of this bilateral dispute, which certain political circles in our eastern neighbour treat as their top priority, I do not think I need to comment on. Because on issues related to the identity of the Macedonian people, my position is known," Mickoski said at the press conference in response to a journalist's question whether he thinks the new administration of US President Donald Trump will be able to help the country "resolve the dispute with Bulgaria".

Asked the same question on Sunday, when he was visiting the Gazi Baba municipality, Mickoski said that "not only at the meetings in the US, but before that" he had received support for North Macedonia's European integration and he had not heard from anyone that the country should not be a member of the EU.

"We have to start winning in Washington, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Rome, London, everywhere where, unfortunately, due to irresponsible politicians [in North Macedonia] we have not had the ambition to do so [until now]. Our ambition is to try to present the truth, the real truth that hurts the Macedonians and the citizens of [North] Macedonia, because this is the truth that we feel and that creates disappointment. We will continue to fight," Mickoski said.