Management mechanism for sustainable cooperation between China and North Macedonia within One Belt One Road Initiative

STEFANOV, Nako (nako54@abv.bg) 

Nako Raynov Stefanov is a full professor and Doctor Habilis (in Philosophy) at Sofia University. He received his Ph.D. degree in history at Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies by SSSR (now Russian) Academy of Science and conducted his post-doctoral study in the Department of Sociology and Social Psychology at Tokyo University. He is a researcher of East, South and Southeast Asia, and specializes in economics and politics. He lectures at Sofia “Saint Kliment Ohridski” University, Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski” University and some other Bulgarian universities. He is the Chairman of Bulgarian National Peace Council. He has published more than 200 articles in journals and magazines and more than 80 monographs, books, text-books, such as Innovation Development of East Asia – Japan, South Korea, China, Japan – Economy, Technologies, Innovation and Management, State and Political Structure of Contemporary Japan, China – Socio-economic Development from Ancient Time till Now.\ 

Research Overview 

The topic of cultural relations between our two countries – Bulgaria and China, as well as between our two peoples – Bulgarian and Chinese peoples is important and relevant especially today in the conditions of turbulent global dynamics, chaos and contradictions, tension and stress in international relations. It is a well-known idea that “beauty will save the world”, understood precisely as all that is sublime and spiritual, which makes us feel human, to see ourselves as a single humanity, connected to each other with many different connections and meanings. 

When we talk about Bulgarian-Chinese cultural relations, we mean two basic views of culture as a phenomenon: 

• On the one hand is the anthropological consideration of culture, i.e. the civilizational exchange through artifacts of the material and spiritual life of both our two countries; 
• On the other hand, is the presence of the value vision of culture – i.e. the dynamic interactions through socially significant information for our two countries and peoples, affecting history, politics, economics, science and technology, law, morality, religion, etc., but also culture in the narrow sense of the term - art, literature, theater, movies, etc. 

In both cases, an important direction for cultural cooperation is the way of presentation and communication in connection with the highest civilizational achievements of each of the two countries. China is the mother of China-centric East Asian civilization, which is one of the oldest in the world and whose civilizational achievements in world philosophy, material and spiritual culture are indisputable. 

Bulgaria is one of the oldest countries in Europe, which has survived to this day, the mother of the Slavic Orthodox Cyrillic civilization, home of one of the largest Christian currents in the Middle Ages, spread throughout the continent - Bogomilism. 

Research, mutual acquaintance, presentation and communication on the occasion and in connection with the highest civilizational achievements of our two countries, such as the abovementioned, as well as many others, are a good basis for cultural cooperation between Bulgaria and China. Undoubtedly, a long-term strategy for cultural cooperation between our two peoples and countries will be most successfully developed on the platform of the proud “peaks” achieved by the Bulgarian and Chinese peoples in their millennial history.