site.btaBulgaria, North Macedonia Business Forum Planned in Skopje for December

A bilateral business forum will be held in Skopje in December. This transpited here Tuesday from remarks by the visiting Foreign Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, who gave a joint news briefing with Bulgarian counterpart Nikolay Milkov after a one-on-one meeting. Osmani said that the upcoming forum would discuss the potential for increasing and improving business cooperation between the two neighbouring countries.

"There is great potential for increasing cooperation in energy, agriculture, health and many other areas," Osmani said. As a positive example, he pointed to cross-border cooperation between the two countries, where 164 projects with a total value of over EUR 38 million have been implemented.

"I expect our cooperation to make headway," Osmani said.

He pointed out that transport and infrastructure connectivity in the east-west direction has lagged behind by decades, as there was not enough political will to connect the Black Sea with the Adriatic Sea, which would also improve connectivity between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia.

Osmani also highlighted cultural exchange between the two countries as an important topic.

"These topics are being abused and people’s sentiments are manipulated, the result being negative events that service the ultimate purpose of distracting the attention of the two countries from improving goodneighbourly relations. This is not in the interests of the Republic of North Macedonia or the Republic of Bulgaria. I would like to believe that together with my colleague Nikolay Milkov we will do everything to make sure our foreign policy is not determined by somebody else," Osmani said.

In his words, the two countries should partner in the spirit of friendship and good neighbourliness.

Osmani, is on a working visit to Bulgaria, immediately  following his participation in a Sofia meeting of the foreign ministers of the Central European Initiative. Within the framework of his working visit, he is also expected to hold a meeting with Bulgarian caretaker Prime Minister Galab Donev.