At a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu here on Friday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said that the stable and sustainable development of the bilateral relations with Turkey is an important part of Bulgaria's foreign policy, BTA reports.

During the talks, Borissov noted the active bilateral political dialogue conducted in accordance with the principles of goodneighbourliness and mutual respect.

Borissov said that Turkey is Bulgaria's neighbour, an ally in NATO and an important partner of the EU for handling a series of challenges, such as the migration pressure on Europe, the fight against terrorism, energy supplies and energy security, infrastructure, agriculture, trade and economy. In the Prime Minister's words, Bulgaria highly values Turkey's commitment to the application of its 2016 Joint Declaration with the EU on migration, as well as the excellent bilateral cooperation in this field that ensures a zero migration pressure on the common border.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister put an emphasis on the bilateral cooperation in relation to the development of the intersystem connectivity of the two countries' gas transmission networks, which will contribute to the diversification of the gas supply routes.

An emphasis was also put on the existence of significant potential for a further development of the trade and economic relations between Bulgaria and Turkey. Borissov noted that two-way trade grew by 10.7 per cent in January-September 2019 compared to the like period of 2018, reaching 3,017 million euro. Tourism was also mentioned as an area of cooperation with big opportunities for development.

During his visit to Bulgaria, the Turkish Foreign Minister is also scheduled to meet with his Bulgarian counterpart Ekaterina Zaharieva and President Rumen Radev.

31 January 2020 / 16:03