In July, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing as they decided to implement a strategic partnership. A recent four-day visit to China by Radev saw the Capital of Bulgaria, Sofia lifting state-to-state ties with Beijing.
Upon agreeing to join China the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global development strategy proposed by Jinping in 2013, resulted in Bulgaria being one of the first Central and Eastern European countries to sign the intergovernmental co-operation documents with China. Furthermore, Jinping hopes that the strategic partnership between China and Bulgaria will be seen as a new starting point, a starting point in which they can work together in coping with the test of international changes.
Jinping has stressed that both countries should respect and trust each other and should strengthen the exchanges between their governments, legislative bodies, and political parties. Along with the strong belief in both countries strengthening their exchanges, Jinping also states that China and Bulgaria should be able to maintain mutual support on issues involving countries core interests and concerns.
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China and Bulgaria enter strategic partnership, BRItv, Mary Jane Mphahele
China’s firm support was further reiterated towards the European integration process during a recent interview with the Chinese President. Jinping stated “It is hoped that the new EU institutions will maintain the stability and continuity of their China policy” which supports Jinping’s belief that China is willing to strengthen the synergy between China and Egypt’s development strategies such as promoting the country’s infrastructure connectivity, expanding trade investment and cementing people-to-people exchanges.
Even though China’s support towards Bulgaria is confirmed, Jinping still wants Bulgaria to work even harder to promote both countries partnership based on mutual respect as well as fairness and justice which would result in a win-win situation. Radev expressed that he was very happy to visit China during the country’s 70th anniversary of the establishment of the bilateral ties. According to Radev, lifting the state-to-state ties and implementing a strategic partnership would further strengthen the foundation of bilateral relations. Radev also states that Bulgaria is ready to play its part and participate in the BRI by making use of the country’s advantages.
With Bulgaria’s support for multilateralism, Bulgaria’s President Radev, says that they are ready to step up communication and work within its Europe and China relations. By pledging to speed up the work process of the Global Partnership Center of CEECs and China, which launched in April 2019, it further supports the idea that Bulgaria has mutual respect and co-operation towards China and the country’s bilateral relations While hailing China as being a key partner of Bulgaria, Radev says that Bulgaria is more than ready to expand its co-operation with China.