Skopje, 16 September 2024 (MIA) - Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Monday the Bulgarian Ambassador to the country will be presented with a letter of protest after President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova was asked to take a photo alongside counterpart Rumen Radev without the Macedonian flag in the background during her visit to Sofia last Friday.

"When Macedonian dignity was sold in the past, everyone kept quiet and agreed with those who humiliated and trampled us. Now things are resolved with diplomacy, by sending letters of protest. When red lines are crossed, then you have to respond, because if you don't, then the exception will become the norm," PM Mickoski told reporters.

We are always ready, he added, to return with kindness to goodneighborly relations, but also respond when red lines are crossed.

According to the PM, the Macedonian delegation did not immediately react to the absence of the national flag out of respect for the two Bulgarian pilots who lost their lives in a crash earlier in the day.

"The President's Office clearly pointed this out in the press release. We did not want to create tensions out of respect for the tragic loss of the pilots. It is good that we are responding in this way. We did not mind keeping quiet before, when this was considered a European value, but now our reactions are a problem?" said Mickoski.

Regarding the work of the joint commission on historical issues, the PM expects discussions to resume in the spirit of friendship and goodneighborliness.

"I expect objective discussions. These are processes that last for decades and examples of this are seen throughout Europe. Hasty solutions lead to hasty decisions that maybe wrong. That is why I expect commission members of both sides to have discussions in the spirit of good neighbors," noted Mickoski.

Photo: MIA