Skopje, 7 May 2022 (MIA) – Perhaps this is the only and last chance to save the relations between North Macedonia and Bulgaria, because in the future the Government will have less and less political energy, and the whole society too, to commit to an issue that consumes political energy, and of course it also consumes citizens in these continuous cycles of hope and frustration, Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani told a press conference on Saturday. The Minister believes it is an obligation not to expose citizens to such “endless frustration and disappointment”, adding that one day a line would need to be drawn, i.e. say - that’s enough. “We cannot have such an approach in which the governments will be thematic and deal with only one issue and one hope. We’ll have to focus on the inside, to continue with the reforms inside, with the Europeanization of the country, but there’ll be no energy to continue as it was until now. And this is what we’re saying to Bulgaria that there’s now a window of opportunity and perhaps a last chance to save what we’ve built over the past months and start a new chapter of positive relations between our countries, but also to the EU that they will have to say what next,” Osmani said. He pointed out that communication with Bulgaria continues, as well as with the French EU Presidency that has responsibility in these six months to manage and coordinate the process. Osmani hopes that over the next weeks there’ll be possibility for a concrete dialogue and concrete steps. According to Osmani, Skopje did everything that could be done, as well as what could not be done. “I think it’s enough. By June, or better by summer I think we need to continue maximum effort for this to succeed. I believe it’s important that the opposition also understands the moment. We need to continue in a constructive way until we make the most of this opportunity and then openly say to citizens, to the EU, and to the Republic of Bulgaria that we can no longer push citizens around and expose them to such a process of cyclical expectations and disappointments, all the while having fulfilled all requirements. We need to know where we stand, it can no longer continue this way,” Osmani stressed. According to the Minister there’s been rapprochement in the positions over the recent months, and it would be great pity if it fails because, he added, the country will never be in better position to overcome the differences. He pointed out that no one can bring into question the Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria. Bulgaria, he added will always be the country’s neighbor, a NATO ally, and it will always be important to have good neighborly relations with Bulgaria. As regards US involvement in the relations with Bulgaria, Osmani said the US is strongly interested in this process to work and the European consolidation of the region to continue, but there is no concrete process in which the US is a mediator in the relations between the two countries. Those relations, Osmani said, take place on a bilateral basis. FM Osmani added that he hoped the second intergovernmental conference with Bulgaria will be held at the end of May.