Skopje, 7 February 2023 (MIA) – The Strategic Dialogue with the United States is not an alternative but is complementary to the process of EU integration. We do not expect a new veto from Bulgaria, said Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani on Tuesday.

“It is true that we initiated the Strategic Dialogue when it was uncertain if negotiations would begin, because we believed that we need a process that would track all aspects of the development of society – anti-corruption policy, the rule of law, the mechanisms that the U.S. has and the support in would provide to the judiciary so that we reach the EU criteria. Fortunately, we now have both mechanisms pushing us towards progress and the EU, and therefore it is not an alternative, the dialogue is complementary to the process of EU integration. I don’t foresee any vetoes. North Macedonia’s EU membership path has entered an irreversible stage, it will not be easy and there will be many challenges, but the direction will not change,” FM Osmani told reporters at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski.

Regarding the impression that the US dialogue intensifies whenever relations with Bulgaria hit a new low point, the FM said there is continuity in terms of the strategic dialogue, and after the topics of the dialogue were defined, a working group was established which together with the US administration created concrete short-term, medium-term and long-term projects.

“Once the conditions were created for all projects to be accepted by all institutions and by the American side, they were adopted by the Government, and we can now inform the public that we are truly entering a new chapter in relations with the United States, in which the 2008 framework for strategic partnership is becoming an action plan, a living instrument that will deepen our relations and certainly bring more stability, progress, economic and cultural exchange between our two countries,” said Osmani. ad/ik/