“Turkey is a good neighbor and a strategic partner for Bulgaria. It is a fast-developing market where the Bulgarian goods and services may be offered.” This is what Rosen Plevneliev said in Ankara, where he attended the inauguration ceremony of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as president of the Republic of Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the first president of Turkey who takes up the post after a direct vote.
During the ceremony the Bulgarian Head of State gave Erdogan best regards on behalf of Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council. The ceremony was attended by top-level representatives from more than 75 countries. President Plevneliev was welcomed by a guard of honor at the airport.
In Ankara President Rosen Plevneliev emphasized that by achieving economic success, Turkey has established itself as an important hub for trade and investments in our region. The implementation of infrastructure projects such as the Maritsa highway, the rail tunnel under the Bosphorus, as well as the construction of a high-speed rail line between Plovdiv and Istanbul, give Bulgaria the chance to position itself as “a center of a more thriving trade between Europe, Turkey, the Middle East and Asia as a whole,” the President said.
Bulgaria and Turkey share the ambition to encourage mutual investments and double the bilateral trade in the following years, which reached 4.7 billion US dollars in 2013. Turkey ranks second after Germany in terms of export for our country. “This completely serves the interests of the Bulgarian economy and will create jobs and offer economic prospects,” Rosen Plevneliev further commented.
In the Head of State’s words, Turkey is an extremely important partner in our country’s efforts to diversify the supplies of natural gas. “Bulgaria is paying a heavy price for being dependent on one supplier and one pipeline,” the President said and further added that through the future gas interconnector with Turkey, Bulgaria will be able to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan, Qatar and other countries from the region because Turkey has the necessary infrastructure. In September President Plevneliev, together with other heads of state from the region, will attend the first-sod ceremony of the trans-Adriatic gas pipeline.
The Head of State pointed out that the increase of the export of Bulgarian electricity for Turkey will provide a further opportunity for encouraging the bilateral cooperation in the energy sector.
Rosen Plevneliev was adamant that the good relationships between the two countries should be the basis for finding a lasting solution to the transport issues along our common border. “Logistics is a traditional industry for Bulgaria and only together with our Turkish colleagues can we find a long-term solution to the transport services of the European companies, supplies and orders in the whole of Asia,” the Head of State said.
The President voiced his expectation that a closer cooperation between Bulgaria and Turkey in the tourism sector will be achieved. More than 20 million tourists visit Turkey annually and the new airport in Istanbul is expected to have the capacity to cater for 150 million visitors, which also creates conditions for a more active partnership in the exchange of tourists, the Head of State said. “We should work to ensure trust, understanding, partnership, investments and trade. We can achieve all that when we strengthen our relationships and, as president, I would like to be the symbol of namely strengthening the relationships between Bulgaria and Turkey,” President Rosen Plevneliev further commented.