My visit to Sofia aims at enhancing the relations between Macedonia and Bulgaria and strengthening institutional cooperation, Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said in an interview with the Bulgarian National Television (BNT).

As MIA’s correspondent reported, Osmani in the interview expressed his regret that those who make attempts to worsen the Macedonian-Bulgarian relations gain more importance in both countries than what was achieved between the institutions.

He pointed out that this year, for the first time, trade between the two countries will reach one billion euros, which is the result of the hard work of businesses on both sides of the border, but this is not visible to the public, but attention is focused on provocations.

There are people on both sides who create tensions and cause provocations. We should oppose these provocations, he said.

According to Osmani, cooperation should be established not only between politicians but also between representatives of all segments of the societies of the two countries, and it should be a kind of network that will survive, even if political relations are disrupted.

For that, comprehensive cooperation is needed not only between us, ministers Osmani and Milkov, but also between universities, students, doctors… In this way, a complex of networks will be created that will maintain the construction of good relations between our two countries and they will not they depend on the politicians, who are dependent on the internal dynamics. It is obvious that someone has no interest in good relations between Bulgaria and Macedonia. There are third countries that do not want the region of the Western Balkans to be stable and two NATO allies to have good relations, said Osmani.

According to him, the good news is that those who tried to build a political career in Bulgaria by acting against Macedonia did not receive the support of the Bulgarian citizens in the parliamentary elections.

Osmani emphasizes that the agreement that was signed in the field of energy between Macedonia and Bulgaria, apart from being very important, also has a symbolic meaning because this will be the first agreement that gives the country the opportunity to receive gas other than Russian, which is the beginning of the big project for the diversification of energy sources.

This agreement has to do with both security and geopolitics, Osmani added in the interview with BNT.

Regarding the constitutional amendments, Minister Osmani announced that they should enter the procedure in the coming months.