Sofia, 30 August 2024 (MIA) - The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday it summoned the Ambassador of North Macedonia to Sofia, Agneza Rusi-Popovska, to convey its protest over yesterday's press conference of Deputy PM and Minister of Transport and Communications Aleksandar Nikoloski.

The Bulgarian side reaffirmed the consistent position regarding Skopje's European prospects. Regretfully, the systematic provocations and refusal to fulfill the obligations by officials of the neighboring country are taking the country further away from the start of the EU accession negotiations. The current and any subsequent cabinet will continue to follow the natural line of Bulgarian's foreign policy towards the Republic of North Macedonia, which focuses on guaranteeing human rights and respecting the principles of goodneighborliness, the Bulgarian MFA said in a press release.

Deputy PM Nikoloski told a press conference on Thursday that the process of constitutional amendments and the Negotiating Framework are the main topics in Bulgarian media whenever there are elections in the country.

"This is not something new, it has been a policy in Bulgaria since 2020. The Macedonia topic is always abused during Bulgarian elections. I am not sure when their elections will take place, because they are so dysfunctional they cannot even schedule them. This is their seventh or eighth caretaker government, they cannot even find people to serve in the cabinet. They should first take care of their own house, elect a political government and we will sit down and talk with the political government. I do not intend to respond to unknown people who want to score politically just because they are officials in a government that has legitimacy from no one," said Minister Nikoloski.

Photo: Bulgarian MFA