site.btaBulgarian Foreign Ministry Will Spare No Effort to Block US Congress Resolution on Macedonian-American Heritage

"The Foreign Ministry will do everything possible to ensure that the US Congress proposal for a resolution to declare the month of September as the month of Macedonian-American heritage does not pass," Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel said here on Friday, addressing Parliament during the first Question Time of the new session.

Gabriel answered a question from There Is Such a People MP Pavela Mitova regarding the Foreign Ministry's actions to oppose yet another distortion of historical facts and events by the Republic of North Macedonia.

"From day one, the Foreign Ministry has been aware of the motion for a resolution, and our Ambassador and Consul General are very active. They have already held talks with the team of the senator who introduced the resolution. There is a procedure that has started, I assure you that we will do everything possible to prevent this resolution from being passed," Gabriel said.

She recalled that this was not the first attempt, but the second. "We have a clear position towards the Republic of North Macedonia," said Gabriel, adding that it is important that they fulfill their commitments to Bulgaria agreed upon in July 2022.

"Bulgaria will continue to defend its position very clearly, to reiterate that we stand behind the fulfillment of all conditions related to the July 2022 compromise, to clearly oppose attempts at false information and disinformation that Bulgaria has new conditions and in the meantime we will clearly assert our language, culture and identity," said the Foreign Minister.

It is not within the competence of any legislative body to pronounce on such topics, she added and clarified that in this case the National Assembly of Bulgaria can continue to be very useful. "We want to show very clearly to North Macedonia that only when you fulfill the commitments that you yourself agreed to fulfill, then European integration will become more that a dream," she added.