The Macedonian Government has appealed to Bulgaria not to open a second front against Macedonia on its path to Brussels in view of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s recent statement that for Sofia the proposal of Northern Macedonia for resolving the name issue between Macedonia and Greece was unacceptable for it suggested territorial claims against Bulgaria.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski welcomed Sunday his Bulgarian counterpart Borisov’s statement, or more specifically, the part in which he says that Macedonia should become a NATO member state.

“First, I would like to welcome the part of the statement in which Mr. Borisov says that Macedonia should become a NATO member state. That is a standing deserving of praise and respect. Second, as far as the name issue is concerned, I would like to say that we have a bilateral dispute with Greece in the resolution of which we are investing a great deal of effort and we are going to continue working on its resolution. We are open to hear all suggestions and views from all other countries yet in the end a solution has to be found that would be accepted by the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia in a referendum,” Gruevski stressed.