Macedonia-Bulgaria Treaty on Good-Neighborliness enters into force

Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov and his Bulgarian counterpart Ekaterina Zaharieva will sign Wednesday the protocol for exchange of ratification documents which enforces the Treaty on Friendship, Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation between two countries.

This will complete the formal procedure for entry the treaty into force following its ratification in the Macedonian Parliament on Jan. 15 and in Bulgarian Assembly on Jan. 18.

The Treaty on Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation was signed on Aug. 1, 2017 by the Macedonian and Bulgarian Prime Ministers Boyko Borissov and Zoran Zaev, respectively aimed at strengthening friendly relations, promoting good-neighbourly relations, developing mutual relations in accordance with the international law.

The treaty is a result of five-year negotiation process of the two foreign ministries’ working groups and represents an upgrade of 1990 treaty.

Today, Dimitrov is scheduled to meet Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his counterpart Ekaterina Zaharieva.

He will also participate at an informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers (Gymnich), which is to take place in Bulgaria’s capital on 15-16 February.

The meeting will open with working sessions on Syria, Western Balkans and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. On the second day, the ministers of foreign affairs of the five EU candidate countries will join the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini and the 28 EU ministers.

Gymnich is a castle in the western part of Germany and earlier it was the guest house of the (West) German government. It was the place where the first informal EU foreign ministers meeting took place in 1974.