Opening up new prospects for Vietnam-Bulgaria cooperation

At the invitation of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, General Secretary To Lam and his wife, along with a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, paid an official visit to the Republic of Bulgaria from October 22-24. On this occasion, Deputy Foreign Minister Le Thi Thu Hang gave an interview to the press about the significance of the visit and the relationship between the two countries.

Deputy Foreign Minister Le Thi Thu Hang. (Photo: An Dang/VNA)

Reporter : Could you please tell us the meaning and purpose of General Secretary To Lam 's official visit to Bulgaria?

Deputy Minister Le Thi Thu Hang : The visit takes place at a very meaningful time, when Vietnam and Bulgaria celebrate the 75th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations and this is the first visit by a General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam after Bulgaria's institutional transformation in 1990.

The official visit to Bulgaria by General Secretary To Lam carries a message of the sincere sentiments and respect of the Party, State and people of Vietnam for its traditional partners and friends who have provided valuable support and contributions to Vietnam's past struggle to defend the Fatherland and its current cause of national construction and development. The visit is also an opportunity for Vietnam to open up a new space for cooperation with Bulgaria in particular and the Balkan countries in general.

As one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam, since 1950, the Vietnam-Bulgaria friendship has been diligently cultivated by generations of leaders and people of the two countries. In August 1957, President Ho Chi Minh paid an official visit to Bulgaria, laying the foundation and opening a period of good development in the relationship between the two countries, with valuable material and spiritual support and assistance that Bulgaria gave to Vietnam in the cause of national liberation and defense. Bulgaria has trained thousands of experts with university and postgraduate degrees for Vietnam and tens of thousands of skilled workers... who are a valuable source of high-quality human resources for Vietnam's cause of national construction and development.

This visit will be an opportunity for the two countries' senior leaders to review the achievements in developing the relationship, thereby having strategic orientations, bringing the long-standing traditional friendship between Vietnam and Bulgaria to a new height, especially in the areas of cooperation where Bulgaria has strengths and Vietnam has needs. At the same time, this is also an opportunity for the two countries to firmly build a bridge of trust connecting Bulgaria with ASEAN and Vietnam with the EU.

Reporter: Could you please assess the Vietnam-Bulgaria relationship in recent times and your expectations for this working trip of General Secretary To Lam?

Deputy Minister Le Thi Thu Hang : 75 years of building and developing relations marks a historical period of accompanying each other in the construction and development of each other as well as the achievements of cooperation in most areas of cooperation in the bilateral relationship. The two sides regularly maintain exchanges of high-level delegations and periodically implement bilateral cooperation mechanisms, thereby creating a foundation of deep political trust.

Two-way trade turnover has grown continuously in recent years. Regarding education and training, the two countries have signed a Cooperation Program for the period 2025-2028 and are considering research to expand the training cooperation environment in Bulgaria's strong fields such as information technology, cyber security, e-government, and public administration. Cooperation in other fields such as defense, security, culture, and labor is increasingly taking new steps of development. The two sides are implementing scientific research cooperation tasks, promising to bring new cooperation frameworks suitable to the potential and needs of each side, contributing significantly to the development of each country.

We expect the visit to open up new cooperation opportunities in the fields of trade and investment through opening markets for each other; effectively implementing the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), urging the European Commission to soon ratify the Investment Protection Agreement between Vietnam and the EU (EVIPA), thereby strengthening investment cooperation and further increasing bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and Bulgaria as well as other partners in the EU.

On the basis of the traditional friendship between the two countries, I hope that the visit will further strengthen people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, promote tourism-cultural activities, educational and training cooperation, contributing to enhancing mutual understanding between the two peoples. With sincere and close feelings, I believe that General Secretary To Lam's official visit to Bulgaria will open up promising cooperation prospects, in line with Vietnam's strategic orientation in the new era, bringing about many positive results for the benefit of the people of the two countries, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in each region and in the world.

Reporter: Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!

Source: https://nhandan.vn/mo-ra-trien-vong-hop-tac-moi-viet-nam-bulgaria-post917033.html