Skopje, 14 December 2021 (MIA) – I am convinced that working groups between North Macedonia and Bulgaria on infrastructure, economy, culture, education…would be an opportunity to show that we have made serious preparations over the past period, says the Government’s Special Representative for Bulgaria, Vlado Buchkovski, on the proposal by new Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov to speed up bilateral communication and cooperation through such working groups. “We have done much more compared to Bulgaria when it comes to infrastructure. Macedonian and Bulgarian railways’ directors have met on several occasions and defined the pace for construction of the railroad between the two countries, which is one of the largest infrastructure projects worth EUR 650 million and set to be completed in the next six years. Moreover, we are also constructing the Rankovce-Kriva Palanka express road leading to the border. It is also a fact that we have been waiting for two decades for them to construct the infamous 15km leading to the Klepalo border crossing between Berovo and Strumyani. There is a lot to talk about in the sector of culture but also to see why projections have not been realized in the economic field,” Buchkovski told Sitel TV. According to him, we are now facing a new challenge of sooner finalization of the talks. “Zaev is saying January 15 is the period by which he would leave the PM’s post. We expect to make a breakthrough during this time. Seeing what Zaev has done over the past four years, I still believe he could be an added guarantee for implementation of everything that we would agree on,” says Buchkovski. He notes that Macedonians and Bulgarians lack mutual trust. “This is the main problem when reading their infamous declaration that has created serious problems over the past couple of years. We claim this declaration has led to this impasse that we cannot go out of. They claim this was provoked by us because the historical commission did not operate as they had expected,” says Buchkovski.