The Foreign Ministry has summoned Bulgarian Ambassador Zeljasko Radukov for a meeting tomorrow to explain the violation of agreed protocol rules during the visit of President Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova to Sofia earlier this week. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev had Siljanovska join him for a photo-op in front of the Bulgarian coat of arms with just the Bulgarian and EU flags in the background, but with no Macedonian flag – even though the protocols have previously agreed to avoid photographs being taken in the indoors area.

This diplomatic snug came to dominate reporting after President Siljanovska’s first visit to Bulgaria, where she was hoping to conduct cultural diplomacy and attend a performance of Nabucco by the Macedonian Opera.

Radev is known as a hardliner on the Macedonian issue and has went out of his way to sour relations between the two countries.