The Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Nikolai Milkov, after a session at the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, stated that Bulgaria will withdraw its ambassador from Skopje and will stop all joint interstate projects with North Macedonia.
This step was taken after the recent tensions with North Macedonia, especially after the physical attack on Hristijan Pendikov, the representative of a Bulgarian club in the city of Ohrid. The attack on him took place on January 19, but the investigations have not yet determined whether he was attacked because of personal disputes, or because of his Bulgarian citizenship. "We are all of the opinion that things cannot continue as they have been. What is happening is not a productive approach. It must be made clear that things have changed. We will examine more components and elements of our bilateral cooperation with Macedonia of the North", declared the head of Bulgarian diplomacy, Nikolai Milkov.
Bulgaria threatens to repeat the veto against North Macedonia
Asked if after this incident Sofia will block the European integration talks of North Macedonia, Milkov said that Bulgaria will not do this, because as he said, the talks have never started". The head of Bulgarian diplomacy has reiterated the possibility that if North Macedonia continues to behave in this way, there is a repetition of the veto for the beginning of the dialogue between Skopje and the EU. "For Macedonia to continue its European journey, it must respect the obligations received from the EU. Bulgaria does not need to undertake anything, but it will itself observe whether these obligations are respected by the Macedonian side. In the European proposal, there is no deadline for fulfilling the obligations which means that Macedonia can complete them for years, but this means that without their completion,
