American Ambassador to Macedonia Kate Byrnes said that the US would like to see the dispute with Bulgaria resolved while Macedonia conducts EU accession talks.

We certainly hope that (North) Macedonia will continue with its EU accession process. We made clear our desire to hopefully see its accession process reach the inter-governmental conference stage by the end of this year. And as a strong champion of (North) Macedonia’s accession to the EU which we see as our shared interest, we are disappointed by Bulgaria’s blocking the progress so far. It’s really important that we communicate this in Bulgaria and in (North) Macedonia, that the two countries continue to resolve any bilateral disputes outside and apart from the EU process, Byrnes said in a Telma TV interview.

She called on the country to focus on reforms and on fighting the coronavirus epidemic.