Upgrading Vietnam - Bulgaria relations to Strategic Partnership

VTV.vn - General Secretary To Lam and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev agreed to announce the upgrading of Vietnam - Bulgaria relations to a strategic partnership.

General Secretary To Lam and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev at a press meeting. (Photo: VNA)

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 Bulgaria.

This morning (October 23), local time, the official welcoming ceremony was solemnly held at the Presidential Palace. Afterwards, General Secretary To Lam and President Rumen Radev held talks.

Warmly welcoming General Secretary To Lam's first visit to Bulgaria, especially in the context of the two countries celebrating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations, President Rumen Radev affirmed that Bulgaria always attaches importance to Vietnam's position and role in the Asia- Pacific region; highly appreciates Vietnam's foreign policy, contributing to peace, stability and development in the region.

President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev and his wife hosted the welcoming ceremony for General Secretary To Lam and his wife on an official visit to Bulgaria. (Photo: VNA)

President Rumen Radev recalled his deep impressions of the country and people of Vietnam during his visit to Vietnam in November 2024; expressed his impression of Vietnam's great achievements in socio-economic development with appropriate and correct reform policies; affirmed that Bulgaria always attaches importance to the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam, agreed to work with Vietnam to promote relations between the two countries, contributing to sustainable development in each country.

General Secretary To Lam thanked President Rumen Radev for the warm and respectful reception given to the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation and emphasized that Vietnam attaches special importance to its relations with Bulgaria and always remembers and appreciates the valuable support of the Bulgarian people for Vietnam in the struggle for national liberation as well as in national construction and development.

During the talks, the two sides informed each other about the situation in each country. Expressing their delight at the positive developments in bilateral relations in recent times, the two leaders discussed strategic measures to deepen the Vietnam- Bulgaria cooperation framework, making it more practical and suitable for the cooperation framework between the two countries in the new context.

Accordingly, the two leaders agreed to announce the upgrading of Vietnam - Bulgaria relations to a strategic partnership. With this decision, Bulgaria became the first country in the Balkan region to have a strategic partnership with Vietnam.

General Secretary To Lam and President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev held a closed-door meeting. (Photo: VNA)

The two sides discussed and reached high consensus on six groups of solutions. Firstly, enhancing political trust through continuing to promote delegation exchanges and high-level contacts on all Party, State, National Assembly channels and people-to-people exchanges, within the bilateral and multilateral framework. The two sides agreed to continue promoting existing cooperation mechanisms, expanding new cooperation mechanisms, and deepening specialized cooperation. Secondly, promoting cooperation in the field of defense and security, in line with the framework of the Strategic Partnership; agreeing to promote training cooperation, academic exchanges between defense academies and research facilities, cooperation in the field of United Nations peacekeeping, cyber security, military medicine, etc. Thirdly, in the context of the world economy facing many great challenges, the two countries agreed to closely coordinate, making economic, trade and investment cooperation a central pillar in the Strategic Partnership. The two sides pledged to closely coordinate to maintain and strengthen free trade; strongly promote trade and investment through opening markets to each other; effectively implement the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement, with the goal of doubling bilateral trade turnover in the coming years. The two sides are ready to be the "gateway" for Vietnamese and Bulgarian goods to penetrate the ASEAN market and the EU market. Fourth, agree to make science and technology cooperation an important pillar of the Vietnam - Bulgaria Strategic Partnership by expanding cooperation in areas of both sides' strengths and needs such as training IT human resources in the fields of digital transformation, digital economy, digital infrastructure and e-government, pharmaceuticals and biomedicine, virtual assistants and modern computer science, green energy... Fifth, agree to promote cooperation in training high-quality human resources, building programs, cultural activities, tourism, exhibitions, music exchanges... to enhance understanding and exchange between the people of the two countries.

The General Secretary asked Bulgaria to simplify visa issuance for Vietnamese citizens so that more and more Vietnamese people can come to the land of roses, and asked Bulgaria to continue creating favorable conditions for the community of more than 30,000 Vietnamese people to integrate more deeply and make positive contributions to the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries.

General Secretary To Lam and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev held official talks. (Photo: VNA)

Sixth, the two sides agreed to increase the exchange of views on issues of mutual concern, promote cooperation in resolving traditional and non-traditional security issues, closely coordinate and support each other at multilateral forums such as the United Nations, ASEAN - EU, ASEM to maintain peace, stability and development in each region and the world. The two sides emphasized their support for the stance and viewpoint in ensuring security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea; uphold the rule of law, resolve disputes by peaceful means, not use or threaten to use force in international relations, in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

On this occasion, General Secretary To Lam sent greetings and invitations to visit Vietnam from high-ranking Vietnamese leaders to President Rumen Radev and Bulgarian leaders.

Source: https://vtv.vn/nang-cap-quan-he-viet-nam-bulgaria-len-doi-tac-chien-luoc-100251023191628772.htm