Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met today with the Prime Minister of Bulgaria Nikolai Denkov, at Maximos Mansion. The meeting was followed by a working lunch with the participation of the two countries’ delegations.
During the working lunch, the two leaders reviewed the whole spectrum of Greek-Bulgarian relations and the progress of cooperation in a number of areas of joint interest.
They agreed to boost and speed up cooperation focusing on interconnectivity in energy and transport, on the basis of the Vertical South-North Corridor for natural gas and cooperation in the field of renewable energy.
Issues of common interest were also discussed at the highest level last October, during the Trilateral Summit of Greece-Bulgaria-Romania and the signing of a joint Declaration by the three countries’ leaders.
Particular emphasis was placed on the Greek- Bulgarian connectivity of road and rail networks.
Attending the working lunch on behalf of the Greek side were the Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis, the Minister of Foreign Affairs George Gerapetritis, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Christos Staikouras, the Minister of Environment and Energy Theodoros Skylakakis, the Director of the Prime Minister’s Diplomatic Office Ambassador Anna Maria Boura and the Advisor to the Prime Minister for Global Affairs and Strategic Communications Aristotelia Peloni.
At the beginning of their meeting, the two leaders made the following statements:
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Prime Minister, welcome. Always a pleasure to host you in Athens. First official visit of 2024, I think, says something about the quality of our bilateral relations. Congratulations on Schengen. You know how much we have supported the decision that was finally taken and looking forward for Schengen to be fully applicable, including the land borders, which of course are so important for our bilateral relations and our economic trade.
I’m very much looking forward to discussing important connectivity projects between Greece and Bulgaria related to transport, energy, telecommunications, and to build upon the very successful trilateral discussions we had in Euxinograd with our Romanian partners. So again, welcome to Athens.
Nikolai Denkov: It’s really my pleasure to be here and to be the first official visitor. I heard that you have the custom of “podarico”. So, I’m glad to be here today. We have excellent strategic relations in several areas – transport, energy, defence and defence industry. We have something to discuss here today. But there are also opportunities to accelerate and to finish some of the documents in the next few months. This is the main purpose, to see how we can accelerate this progress and to have final results in the next months.
I would like to use the opportunity of this invitation and to say my best regards to all of the citizens of the Hellenic Republic for the New Year, a very prosperous, very peaceful year. We all hope for this. So my best regards to all of the Greek people.
