Improving regional connectivity is key to tackling economic and energy challenges. This was the common position of Presidents Rumen Radev and Klaus Iohannis, who met today in Sofia. The President of Romania is on an official visit to Bulgaria at the invitation of President Rumen Radev.
The two heads of state signed a Declaration on Strategic Partnership between Bulgaria and Romania at the Presidency. The document reflects the common will of the two countries to join efforts and tackle regional and global crises, as well as the shared responsibility for stability and security in the Black Sea region.
The Danube should connect, not divide, Bulgaria and Romania and become an instrument for fostering bilateral cooperation, which faces a number of untapped opportunities, Rumen Radev noted. The President added that while the average distance between two bridges on the Danube in the rest of Europe is 30 km, the distance between the only two bridges on the Bulgarian-Romanian border is 300 km. That is why, Rumen Radev highly appreciated the readiness of the governments of the two countries to reach an agreement on the construction of a third bridge over the Danube and stressed that the caretaker government was working to sign a memorandum for the two countries to declare their ambitions to implement this project with EU assistance. At the same time, he expressed readiness for Bulgaria and Romania to jointly implement the Fast Danube project to facilitate navigation along the Danube, as well as other transport and infrastructure projects.
The Bulgarian head of State also noted that the economic ties between the two countries are continuously deepening, with trade exceeding EUR 8 billion last year, which makes Romania Bulgaria's second largest trading partner in the EU after Germany.
The unfair Schengen barrier between Romania and Bulgaria should no longer be used to solve domestic political issues in other EU member states, the Bulgarian head of State said. Both Rumen Radev and Klaus Iohannis defined the accession to the Schengen area as a priority task for Bulgaria and Romania. Raising this barrier as soon as possible will give an additional impetus to the development of the economies of the two countries and meet the just expectations of the citizens of Bulgaria and Romania for equal rights in the European Union.
The subsequent expansion of bilateral cooperation in the energy sector and the exploration of opportunities for the construction of hydropower plants on the Danube was also noted as an area of mutual interest. The Bulgarian President pointed out that the commissioning of the interconnector with Greece, as well as the agreement between Bulgaria and Turkey on access to the liquefied gas terminals and the gas transmission network of our southeastern neighbour, are a success not only for Bulgaria, but also for Romania and the other countries of the region. Rumen Radev also hailed Romania's accession to the Solidarity Ring initiative, which guarantees additional gas supplies from Azerbaijan to Central Europe.
During their meeting, Presidents Radev and Iohannis reaffirmed the two countries' support for the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Ukraine and called for an end to the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine as soon as possible.