The Foreign Ministers of Macedonia and Bulgaria, Timco Mucunski and Velislava Petrova, will meet on Thursday in Sofia. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry confirmed to BTA that the top diplomats of both countries would have the opportunity to meet on the sidelines of an international ministerial conference on Corridor 8 in Sofia, hosted by Minister Velislava Petrova.

The forum—which will also be attended by the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, Mucunski—will facilitate a bilateral meeting as part of the ongoing dialogue between the two countries, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry stated.

The initiative for a meeting between the two foreign ministers arose during the visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Skopje. Acting on her advice, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski asked Mucunski to request a meeting with Petrova in an effort to advance the process of resolving the issue regarding Bulgaria’s blockade of Macedonia’s European integration.