Bulgaria’s President Rossen Plevneliev paid an official visit to Georgia this week. This was the first visit of Bulgarian head of state to that country in the past 15 years. It became clear during President Plevneliev’s visit to Georgia that Bulgaria has been firmly supporting Georgia’s integration within the EU and NATO, despite the multiple cabinet changes that happened in Bulgaria over the recent years.

Rossen Plevneliev said during the meeting with his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Margvelashvili that Bulgaria categorically supported the independence and territorial integrity of Georgia. President Plevneliev specified that Bulgaria did not recognize the so-called “agreements” between the Russian Federation, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which undermine the international efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation in that region. With regard to the abovementioned agreements, Bulgaria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced at the beginning of 2015 that these contracts infringed the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Georgia and reminded that Bulgaria had neither recognized the new quasi state establishments, nor the results of the elections that were held there. Sofia has been acknowledging Georgia’s sovereignty since 2008. It has been doing so even within the frameworks of the so-called New Friends of Georgia Group, launched before the events, which resulted in a military conflict between Russia and Georgia. When Moscow seized the military operation in Georgia, former Bulgarian Premier Sergei Stanishev welcomed that step and suggested that the conflict had to be solved through a political dialogue with the mediation of the European Union.

This week during his visit to Tbilisi President Plevneliev voiced Bulgaria’s support towards Georgia’s integration to both-the EU and NATO. Sofia was expressing its categorical support towards Georgia during the government of former Oresharski cabinet as well. In 2014 at a sitting of the NATO-Georgia Commission, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Kristian Vigenin welcomed the commitment of Georgia’s cabinet towards its NATO integration. Mr Vigenin sent a similar message during his visit to Georgia and several months later he welcomed the association agreement ratified between the EU and Georgia.

Georgia President Giorgi Margvelashvili said upon the end of President Plevneliev’s visit to Tbilisi that Bulgaria’s support towards Greece had been systematic and firm. That is why Sofia and Tbilisi expect that President Plevneliev’s visit to Georgia would further strengthen the bilateral economic and political relations between these two countries.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov