Deputy Minister Le Thi Thu Hang: General Secretary's official visit to Bulgaria opens up new prospects for cooperation

On the occasion of General Secretary To Lam's official visit to Bulgaria, Deputy Foreign Minister Le Thi Thu Hang gave an interview to the press.

- 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: At the invitation of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, General Secretary To Lam and his wife, along with a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, will pay an official visit to the Republic of Bulgaria from October 22-24, 2025. The visit takes place at a very meaningful time, when Vietnam and Bulgaria celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and this is the first visit by a General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam after Bulgaria's regime transformation in 1990.

Following the official visit to Finland, General Secretary To Lam's official visit to Bulgaria carried a message of sincere affection and respect of the Party, State and People of Vietnam for traditional partners and friends who have provided valuable support and contributions to the past struggle to defend the Fatherland and the current cause of national construction and development of Vietnam.

The visit is also an opportunity for Vietnam to open up new cooperation spaces with Bulgaria in particular and Balkan countries in general.

As one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam, since 1950, the Vietnam-Bulgaria friendship has been carefully cultivated by generations of leaders and people of the two countries.

In August 1957, President Ho Chi Minh paid an official friendly 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 of the Fatherland.

The Vietnamese people always remember the image of thousands of Bulgarian students and people taking to the streets to protest the war in Vietnam. The Viet-Bun Hospital in Thai Binh and the Viet-Bun Kindergarten in Hanoi are meaningful gifts that the Bulgarian people gave to the people of the capital.

Bulgaria has trained thousands of university and postgraduate experts and tens of thousands of skilled workers for Vietnam, who are valuable high-quality human resources for Vietnam's 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 areas of cooperation where Bulgaria has strengths and Vietnam has needs such as information technology, quantum, artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation, green transformation, biomedicine...

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 vice versa, Vietnam with the EU.

Georgi Dimitrov Kindergarten (now Viet-Bun High-Quality Kindergarten), donated by the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Women's Union to the capital Hanoi, was completed in December 1981. (Photo: Nguyen Tan/VNA)

- 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 process of building and developing as well as the achievements of cooperation in most areas of cooperation in the relationship between the two countries.

In terms of politics and diplomacy, the two sides regularly maintain high-level delegation exchanges 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 2025-2028 period and are considering expanding the training cooperation environment in Bulgaria's strong fields such as information technology, cyber security, e-government, public administration, etc.

Cooperation in other fields such as defense, security, culture, labor... is increasingly seeing new developments.

The two sides are also implementing scientific research cooperation tasks; establishing a Science and Technology Cooperation Committee, focusing on new fields such as biotechnology, information and communication technology, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, green energy, etc.

This promises to bring about new cooperation frameworks that are suitable to the potential and needs of each side, thereby making important contributions 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 also hope that the visit will further strengthen people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, promote tourism-cultural activities, and educational and training cooperation.

I hope to see more cultural and artistic activities in both countries, following the Bulgarian Rose Festival, the Slavic Writing Culture Day in Hanoi..., the Vietnamese delegation performing at the International Folk Culture Festival in Burgas, the International Arts Festival in Sozopol... which have taken place very effectively in the past time, 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.

- Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!

(TTXVN/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/thu-truong-le-thi-thu-hang-chuyen-tham-chinh-thuc-bulgaria-cua-tong-bi-thu-mo-ra-nhung-trien-vong-hop-tac-moi-post1071731.vnp