President Stevo Pendarovski, who is visiting Pristina today, regarding the issue between Skopje and Sofia, said that the approach of the new Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who says that history should not be the only channel of communication between the two countries.
– I accept the approach of the new Bulgarian Prime Minister who advocates that history not be the only channel through which we as two neighboring countries communicate. We talk about infrastructure, we talk about energy connectivity, we talk about economics and trade, we talk about European integration, we talk about human rights and freedoms, we talk about the pandemic. But let us not talk about what happened three or five centuries ago. It is a modern approach that I support, of course I do not support the time limit because it was announced in six months, I think that the problem between us can be solved in a much shorter period of time, said Pendarovski.
The President, at a joint press conference with the President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani, also said that if the settlement of the issue between Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria is delayed, it would not affect the state of destabilization of the country.
– If at some point in the future we do not get a date for negotiations and if eventually the dispute with Bulgaria is not resolved and we remain in a situation where we will wait in the EU for a long time, I do not believe in such a development, but if it I assure you that neither today there is such data, nor tomorrow there can be such data that will indicate security destabilization of the Republic of Northern Macedonia, said Pendarovski in response to a journalist question whether extending the deadline for the start of negotiations could mean destabilization of the region and of the country.
Pendarovski reminded that the country faced a similar situation when we were rejected from NATO membership in 2008 due to the problem with Greece at the time.
– Ten years later, in 2018, we solved the problem. In those ten years, there was no security destabilization of the country. So, I do not know where those assessments come from and what they are based on, but what I know, and I should know as President of the country in that part, there is no announcement that if we wait longer with an unresolved dispute with Bulgaria or wait longer to start negotiations with the EU that there will be any and by whom any internal or external destabilization of the country. So, from that aspect, the citizens of our country can be calm, concluded Pendarovski at the press conference with Osmani in Pristina.
Source: MIA
