page_title: Zoran Zaev
section_title: Negotiations with Bulgaria for a treaty for friendship and cooperation
hierarchical_section_title: Zoran Zaev / Prime Minister / Negotiations with Bulgaria for a treaty for friendship and cooperation
caption_attribution_description: English: Boyko Borisov, prime-minister of Bulgaria and Zoran Zaev, prime-minister of Macedonia honoring Boris Trajkovski, ex-president of Macedonia in front of his monument in the Central Park in Strumica, Republic of Macedonia. Македонски: Бојко Борисов, премиер на Бугарија и Зоран Заев, премиер на Македонија оддавајќи почит на Борис Трајковски, екс-претседател на Македонија пред неговиот споменик во Централниот парк во Струмица, Република Македонија. Български: Бойко Борисов, министър-председател на България, и Зоран Заев, премиер на Македония, почетат Борис Трайковски, бивш президент на Македония пред неговия паметник в Централния парк в Струмица, Република Македония.
context_page_description: Zoran Zaev is the current Prime Minister of North Macedonia in office since 31 August 2020. He previously served from 31 May 2017 to 3 January 2020.
  Prior to entering politics, he ran a private business in his hometown. In the period 2003-2005 he was a Member of the Parliament of Macedonia, and then he ran for mayor of Strumica, a position he held for three terms, between 2005 and 2016. After the resignation of Branko Crvenkovski from the leadership of the centre-left Social Democratic Union of Macedonia in 2013, Zaev was appointed the new party leader.
  Zaev suffered defeat in the 2014 parliamentary election, after which he accused them of rigging the election and decided for his party to act as a non-parliamentary opposition. In 2015, he published illegally obtained telephone conversations of senior government officials that contained indications of organized crime. In the same year, he signed the Pržino Agreement, which provided for a technical government to hold early parliamentary election in 2016. Following the early election in 2016, Zaev's party formed a parliamentary majority with DUI and Alliance for Albanians, and their coalition government was elected in May 2017.
context_section_description: North Macedonia and Bulgaria have complicated neighbourly relations. In 2012 Bulgaria joined Greece in blocking Macedonia from obtaining a start date for EU accession talks. Bulgaria has accused Macedonia of discriminating against ethnic Bulgarians and of generating an anti-Bulgarian atmosphere in the country. Prospects for improved relations between the two countries have risen since Zaev-led government took power in Skopje in May 2017. In June in a meeting with Zaev in Sofia, PM Boyko Borisov said Bulgaria would back Macedonia’s bid to join the European Union and NATO and would also sign a long-delayed friendship treaty with it. As a result, the two governments signed a friendship treaty to bolster the relations between the two Balkan states on 1 August. It was preceded by 18 years of heavy negotiations. The treaty calls for a committee to "objectively re-examine the common history" of the two countries and envisages both countries will celebrate together events from their shared history. "Macedonia and Bulgaria have a lot of common history and this is the stepping stone for Macedonia's European and Euro-Atlantic future", Zaev said during the ceremony in Skopje. The treaty was ratified by the parliament of the Republic of Macedonia on 15 January 2018 and by the Bulgarian parliament a few days later.
caption: Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov and Zaev honoring former president of the Republic of Macedonia Boris Trajkovski at his monument in Strumica
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