The National Assembly president Mihail Mikov has met with the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, Zhang Dejiang. The plenary talks between the Bulgarian and Chinese parliamentarians were held at the Parliament’s building of China.

Bulgaria is a traditional and sincere friend of China’s People’s Republic, a lot has been accomplished in the development of the bilateral relations and I believe the current visit will give strong impetus to our common aspiration towards a new level of cooperation, stated Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China. He noted that high level political meetings get more frequent, giving as example the two meetings of the premiers of the two countries held in the last several months. Not less important is that despite the world economic crisis the trade relations between the countries had expanded by 30 %, Zhang Dejiang added. In his view there exist a great potential for cooperation in priority areas such as trade, investments, culture and tourism. The leaders of the Chinese state and government encourage the countries’ companies to actively participate in infrastructure projects in Bulgaria and assume that the Bulgarian side will create the best conditions in this respect, said further Zhang Dejiang.

The chair of Bulgaria’s National Assembly, Mihail Mikov, underscored that although the two countries were far away they have had always very friendly relations. He said this includes also the constant, unchanged position of Bulgaria in respect to the “One-China” policy. Bulgaria is a small, financially stable country, which may be the gateway for the Chinese investments in Europe. He voiced his expectations that additional agreements will be signed that will allow the export of quality agriculture goods to be exported to China. Mihail Mikov added that Bulgaria was willing to encourage the cooperation between different regions and municipalities in the two countries, as well the scientific exchange and the relations in the field of culture, youth and sports.

The two parties agreed that the initiative known as “China +16” represented a very good base for cooperation of mutual interest, which in the same time corresponds to the strategy for development of the relations with the People’s Republic of China of the European Union. In this connection the parties pointed to the possibility for realization of trilateral cross-border projects between China, Bulgaria and countries like Romania and Serbia. The Chinese side expressed interest more of its citizens to visit Bulgaria as tourists and to get acquainted with its cultural heritage.  

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Mihail Mikov, praised his Chinese hosts for the achievements, reached by their country, in the Astronautics and space research, suggesting potential cooperation in the area of high technologies.