North Macedonia’s President Gordana Siljanovska will arrive in Sofia on June 10 to participate in the summit of the South-East European Cooperation Process.
As part of the forum, the Macedonian head of state will hold a bilateral meeting with Bulgarian President Iliana Iotova. Siljanovska announced this in an interview with North Macedonia’s public broadcaster MRT 1, expressing her expectation that substantive issues in relations between the two countries will be addressed.
The North Macedonian president described the upcoming talks as a natural continuation of her meeting with Iotova in Yerevan and with Prime Minister Rumen Radev in Sofia. She characterized her conversation with Iotova as a “pleasant conversation between women.” According to her, Sofia and Skopje are in urgent need of confidence-building measures, BTA reported.
In the interview, she said that at present “sparks and arrows” are flying from both sides of the border. However, she stressed that, as president, she cannot negotiate changes to North Macedonia’s Constitution. The inclusion of Bulgarians in the document as a constituent people is one of the commitments accepted by Skopje in its agreements with Brussels in order to begin accession negotiations with the European Union.
Edited by Ivo Ivanov