North Macedonia, Bulgaria seek way to resolve dispute

Bloomberg

Bulgaria’s new premier and his freshly sworn-in counterpart in North Macedonia made a joint push to resolve a regional dispute that would open a path for the former Yugoslav republic to begin accession talks with the European Union.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov traveled to North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, on Tuesday for talks with that country’s newly elected premier, Dimitar Kovacevski. The two pledged to come to an agreement over a lingering dispute over North Macedonia’s name— and set up a direct flight between their two capitals within the next two months.
“We’re opening a new window for cooperation, which we believe will end with a new friendly act as a good neighbor — support for our European integration,” Kovacevski, whose government was approved by parliament this week, told reporters at a joint press briefing on Tuesday.
“From now on, progress will be measured with concrete results,” Petkov said.
The stakes are high for North Macedonia, a landlocked republic of 2 million that changed its name to break a deadlock with Greece and join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2020. Greece had accused the nation of territorial claims over its own region of Macedonia.