President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova meets today in Sofia with Bulgarian Vice President Iliana Yotova, on the margins of the Summit of the South-East European Cooperation Process. Thirty years since the initiative was founded, Sofia is the host - and Macedonia takes over the chairmanship under a motto that reads like a diagnosis of the region: „Bridging divisions, building trust."

„This is the natural continuation of our meeting in Yerevan. Measures for building trust are needed. If citizens don't make contact and don't take part jointly in projects, it's hard to create genuine understanding. We need to mind our words, not insult one another, and behave with respect," the president said ahead of the talks. In an interview before the trip she also stated that „there is no unsolvable problem" and that she expects an open conversation on all the essential questions.

The timing of the meeting is no accident: just a week ago, the EU-Western Balkans Summit was held in Tivat, where the Franco-German non-paper on gradual integration was presented. In other words - Brussels is drawing maps again, and Skopje and Sofia have to decide whether on those maps they stand side by side or face to face.

The tone from Skopje is interesting too. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, asked what he expects from the meeting, replied that he doesn't know what the substance would be, but that „we have a plan and a strategy": „We've never promised miracles, because we're not miracle workers. And anyone who promises miracles - is lying." When a prime minister lowers the ball like this ahead of a presidential meeting, it tells you how many burnt fingers this subject has in domestic politics.

The summit also brings together the presidents of Albania, Slovenia and Montenegro, and ahead of the leaders' segment there's a ministerial meeting where Macedonia is represented by the head of diplomacy Timčo Mucunski. A joint declaration on peace, stability and a European future for the region is expected - the kind of document signed every year, in the hope that it will one day be carried out.

Will „minding our words" turn into measurable results - or will Yerevan and Sofia remain two more dots on the map of a long series of „trust building"? The answer, as always with Bulgaria, we won't learn from the declarations, but from what follows them.