site.btaNorth Macedonia Should Accept Meeting with Bulgaria's Prime Minister at NATO Summit in Hague

North Macedonia must be proactive and show that the problem with its blocked EU integration is not about including (in the constitution) several hundred citizens of the country who say their mother tongue is Bulgarian, but a policy that has lasted for decades, a carefully crafted strategy by Bulgaria, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski today after a visit to the Skopje University.

He made this statement in response to a journalist’s question related to the announced meeting by President Gordana Siljanovska with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and European Council President Antonio Costa during an upcoming NATO summit later this month in The Hague.

Media in North Macedonia have reported that Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov will participate in the meeting.

“The President of the European Council made a proposal, which we immediately accepted — that the two presidents sit down, with the mediation of the EU, during an event where we are on equal footing. There was an idea for the NATO Secretary General to attend this meeting, along with representatives of the US administration, to consider the arguments. At the NATO summit in Washington, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria was present. It is logical for the president and the prime minister to alternate; that is the usual practice. That is why the president of of North Macedonia is there  this year. And it was logical for Bulgaria to send the president […] Now they are sending the prime minister[…] If there is an initiative (for a meeting) at the level of prime minister and president, I believe we should accept it[…]We must be proactive and show that the issue is not what is being said — that the problem is not several hundred of our fellow citizens (in North Macedonia) who say that Bulgarian is their mother tongue, but that there is a bigger problem. A policy that has lasted for decades, a strategy carefully crafted,” said Mickoski.