Macedonia's top diplomat Timcho Mucunski and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova-Chamova could meet on Thursday, 8 October, in Sofia. That was not announced by Skopje, but by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, which told the BTA news agency that on the sidelines of the ministerial conference on Corridor 8 "there will be an opportunity to hold a bilateral meeting, which is part of the regular dialogue between the two countries".

There is no official confirmation yet from Macedonia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade that Sofia has accepted the request. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said during a visit to Tearce that there was still no answer and that the government would comment once it arrived. So we are hearing about the Macedonian minister's meeting from the Bulgarian side first.

The initiative followed last week's visit by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Mickoski said he took her advice and asked Mucunski to send a diplomatic note requesting a meeting. He rejected the suggestion that he left the conversation dissatisfied - on the contrary, he says, von der Leyen described the government's work as "inspiring".

From the Bulgarian side, the messages are familiar. President Iliana Iotova said Bulgaria is always open to talks, but without ultimatums and without departing from European policy, and that the issue should not be treated as a bilateral dispute but as part of the EU's enlargement policy. GERB leader Boyko Borisov, for his part, expects the good-neighbourliness treaty to be implemented.

The opposition expects nothing. SDSM leader Venko Filipche thinks contacts like this should have been happening all along, and calls the government's moves an alibi. "We're standing still, chances are passing us by, and young people are moving away," he says.

The two ministers last met in May, on the sidelines of the NATO ministerial in Helsingborg, and both sides stuck to their positions. Now Skopje is asking for a meeting on advice from Brussels, and Sofia is answering through its news agency. Will Thursday bring a real conversation, or just one more photo on a sofa in front of some conference logo?