Zoran Zaev

The message was very clear: Bulgaria will provide help when asked about it, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva told BTV's morning show, commenting on the visit of Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to Bulgaria.

Macedonia's new government plans to welcome Johannes Hahn with a prepared draft agenda of concrete reform priorities that ministers think are achievable before the year-end, in order to convince the European Commission to restore its recommendation for a start to EU accession talks.

The common history must bring together two countries, not divide them, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva told Bulgarian National Television with regard to the visit of Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to Bulgaria.
She said there is mutual trust and goodwill at a high level between the two countries.

Bulgaria and Macedonia are very close to signing their good-neighbourhood treaty, Prime Ministers Boyko Borisov and Zoran Zaev said after a meeting in Sofia. Zaev said he is confident that the signing will occur as soon as August 2, FOCUS News Agency reported.

Macedonia's new Foreign Minister, Nikola Dimitrov, has paid a first to Athens, where he met his counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, in a warm atmosphere that some hope may pave the way to a solution of the long-standing dispute over Macedonia's name.

Greece objects to the name "Macedonia", claiming it implies a territorial aspiration to the Greek province of the same name.

Greece is promising the new government of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) closer ties but insists a decades-old name dispute should be resolved before it would back future membership of NATO and the European Union.

Macedonia's new government will work hard to convince the EU to revive accession talks by this autumn, and to address Greece's objections to the country's NATO accession, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told top EU and NATO officials in Brussels on Monday.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a news conference after the NATO Force Integration Unit inauguration in Vilnius, Lithuania, September 3, 2015. - Photo: REUTERS / Ints Kalnins

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg does not plan to travel to Skopje, but expects Macedonian (FYROM) Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to visit NATO in Brussels on Monday.

Zoran Zaev - Photo: AP

Zoran Zaev's statement about his country's "neutrality" if Kosovo's UNESCO bid again comes up for a vote, has caused dissatisfaction of the Albanian community.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg does not plan to travel to Skopje, but expects Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to visit NATO in Brussels on Monday.