Bulgaria and Russia have a strategic partnership in energy and they should adopt a more flexible approach to and mechanisms in the agreements for long-term supplies of energy resources, their regular revision and price update. This is what Head of State Rumen Radev called for today at a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. The opportunities for purchasing limited amounts of natural gas from other suppliers, yet at more competitive prices will exert in the future an increasing impact on the energy market in Bulgaria and in the region, Rumen Radev said.
The Bulgarian Head of State is visiting Russia to take part in the prestigious international economic forum in St. Petersburg, which is attended by representatives of tens of countries and hundreds of companies from the whole world. During the first day of his visit Rumen Radev held a meeting with his counterpart Vladimir Putin, at which a lot of topics concerning the bilateral relations in the sphere of trade, defense, and also in the sphere of education, science and culture were discussed. This is the second meeting of the two Heads of State after their talks held in Sochi in May 2018, at which the top-level political dialogue between Bulgaria and Russia was resumed after a ten-year interruption.
“The relations between Russia and Bulgaria are gradually restored. We are starting to use all reserves to activate our bilateral relations in almost all spheres. An example is the growth of trade which increased by 2,8 percent in the first quarter of 2019,” President Vladimir Putin said at the beginning of the talks. The Bulgarian Head of State highlighted the centuries-old historical, cultural and spiritual ties between Bulgaria and Russia, which require a much more active bilateral cooperation in economy, energy and culture.
Rumen Radev noted at the meeting that the changes regarding the prices, suppliers and the opportunities for diversification create a new situation in Europe’s gas map and have already resulted in much lower prices of natural gas for a lot of countries in West Europe. The Head of State also recalled that last week an agreement was signed whereby Bulgaria was provided with 300 million cubic meters through the liquefied gas terminal in Greece. This is 10 percent of the yearly consumption of natural gas in our country and in the Head of State’s words, the price agreed upon is “competitive and more reasonable than the price of the pipe gas we receive from Russia.”
“There is a great decline of the natural gas price at the commodity exchanges in West Europe and it is high time that the Bulgarian government is not so shy and more active and should decide to start negotiations on the price of the Russian natural gas in Bulgaria,” President Radev said after the end of the meeting, taking a journalist’s question. The Head of State said that he no way takes over the functions of the government that should conduct these negotiations. “However, I expect that the government will mobilize itself and seek solutions to reduce the price of the natural gas in Bulgaria because the prices of heating and electricity of the households depend on it, as does the price of consumer goods and the competitiveness of the Bulgarian business,” Rumen Radev said.
In reply to a question concerning the launched procedure for attracting a strategic investor for the construction of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant, the President recalled that the decision of the Bulgarian Parliament and government is that this project should be implemented without state guarantees. Currently Bulgaria cannot assume the risk to construct the second nuclear power plant in the country and from there on it is a matter of attracting strategic investors who should alone or in cooperation participate in the implementation of this project. The Russian side is willing to participate as a state that provides the equipment and ensures its safety. However it expects state guarantees pertaining to this big project, the President further added.
Russia is ready to continue assisting the maintenance of the military equipment in armament in the Bulgarian army, Rumen Radev further said. “The modernization and the whole rearmament with new military equipment takes a lot of years and resources and therefore we should maintain what we currently have in service in the best possible way,” the President further noted. At the meeting the Russian side also raised the issue of reaching an agreement on the Russian licenses the Bulgarian defense industry uses.
Tomorrow the Head of State will make a statement in the presidential panel of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, dedicated to fulfilling the goals for sustainable development of the UN up to 2030. Rumen Radev will hold bilateral talks with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.