President Rosen Plevneliev and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras discussed strengthening the cooperation between Bulgaria and Greece in the energy sector, transport infrastructure, trade and investments relations, defense, and also migration and topical international issues. The Head of State received the Greek Prime Minister, who is visiting Bulgaria to take part in a joint meeting of the two countries’ governments. This is the first visit of the Greek Prime Minister in a country from the region.

President Rosen Plevneliev and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras highly appreciated the agreements reached between the Bulgarian and Greek governments. The agreements include speeding up the work on the gas inter-connector (IGB), which is a major priority for the two countries and will ensure real diversification of the natural gas sources for the region and for Europe. Bulgaria will take part in the implementation of the project for building a liquefied gas terminal in the Greek town of Alexandroupolis. The two countries will also pool efforts to build a high-speed railway between the ports in Alexandroupolis and Burgas.

Under conditions of the recent challenges related to migration and fighting terrorism, the harmony and cooperation between Bulgaria and Greece are strategically important not only for the region, but also for the whole of Europe, it was emphasized at the talks.

The two countries share common positions and assessments of a lot of issues on the regional and international agenda and the excellent cooperation on all levels is a condition which ensures that Bulgaria and Greece will successfully become a factor of stability and security in the region. The successful cooperation within the EU and NATO only contributes to this end.

Greece continues to be a major strategic economic partner of and investor in Bulgaria and in the 1996-2014 period it ranked third in terms of the amount of investments in Bulgaria after the Netherlands and Austria. More than one million Bulgarian citizens have visited our south neighbor in 2016 alone, it further emerged at the meeting. President Plevneliev and Prime Minister Tsipras said that the contacts between the two peoples should be encouraged because “the economic development is dependent on the people, not vice versa.”

The cooperation between Bulgaria and Greece may set an example in the Balkans, as Germany and France have in Europe, and the two countries have a potential to be an engine for the development of the whole region, President Rosen Plevneliev and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras were unanimous.