I believe we’ll all be smart and finally reach a solution to make progress. Portugal’s proposal is a good basis for finding a solution with Bulgaria. If we succeed, the first intergovernmental conference should be held on June 23, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said on Wednesday.

Answering a reporter’s question about participating in a TV duel with the opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski on the dispute with Bulgaria, Zaev said that he expected an invitation from Bulgarian Prime Minister Stefan Yanev to discuss the issue.

Always during the negotiations, in principle, we share all the details and the leader of VMRO-DPMNE has the Portuguese proposal in his hands. That’s how I was informed. At the moment, I do not see a reason to hold a duel, but at the first opportunity when it will not harm the negotiation process, immediately and at any time I am up for a duel on any topic, said Zaev.

The Portuguese presidency, said Zaev, surprisingly positively came up with an inventive and creative solution.

I do not want, he stressed, to raise expectations, and called on the EU, including Bulgaria, to deliver, because they owe it to us.

I am having a lot of meetings these days. I have meetings in Tirana, Vienna, Istanbul, Paris and many destinations. The ultimate goal is to strengthen relations bilaterally and to strengthen our relations with the EU. I hope I will have a meeting with the Bulgarian Prime Minister as well, said Zaev.

I am ready, said Zaev, to go to Sofia and ask for a solution in a pragmatic way.

To ask for a solution on pragmatic grounds, knowing that no one wants to trample on our Macedonian language and Macedonian identity. That will be the case, but still we, the two friendly countries, must find a solution, said Zaev.

He said he was sorry that at the moment there is a caretaker government in Bulgaria, and not a  political one so that it could take full responsibility and therefore, he had reservations and did not know if there will be a decision, “but we need to work and succeed”, said Zaev.