NEWS

Rumen Radev: Speeding up the Process of European Integration of the Republic of North Macedonia will Be a Positive Sign for the Whole Region

The President called for strengthening the positive change in the relations between Bulgaria and North Macedonia by removing the ideologemes from the history textbooks of our western neighbor

Speeding up the process of European integration of the Republic of North Macedonia will be a positive sign for the whole region, therefore we expect a quick progress in conducting the necessary reforms and in the process of building good-neighborly relations. This is what Head of State Rumen Radev said at a meeting with Nikola Dimitrov, Foreign Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia held at 2 Dondukov street. Rumen Radev congratulated Nikola Dimitrov on the occasion of signing the protocol of North Macedonia’s NATO accession and its ratification by the Bulgarian National Assembly.

In the President’s words, the two countries are yet to do a lot of work – building a new model of friendship by strengthening connectivity, the construction of new border check-points, conducting business forums and encouraging the contacts between the companies from Bulgaria and North Macedonia. In Rumen Radev’s opinion, the two countries enjoy the potential of reaching a trade worth one billion euros in the near future. An easier communication in the European context is also necessary and achieving a more tangible progress in overcoming the stagnation in the joint work on clarifying topics from our common history and the restoration of soldiers’ monuments.

The positive change in the bilateral relations ensured by signing the Treaty on Friendship, Good-neighborliness and Cooperation between Bulgaria and North Macedonia should be strengthened by removing politics and the ideologemes from the history textbooks in our western neighbor. The most direct and unproblematic path for North Macedonia towards achieving a full-fledged EU membership is respecting the historical facts. The President said that the people from the two sides of the border have been connected by a common history for more than 1,000 years and the politicians should put efforts into overcoming the artificial division characteristic of the recent past. It is particularly important for Bulgaria that the works of the Bulgarian National Revival activists and also the works of our more recent history writers be published in North Macedonia as a whole and without changing the texts of their works, the Head of State further emphasized.

The development of good-neighborly relations with Bulgaria serves the interests of North Macedonia, Nikola Dimitrov said, for his part. He added that building a real friendship between the two countries is a responsibility the politicians both from Bulgaria and North Macedonia should bear and the personalities and dates from our common history should be a means to developing even closer relations.