President Rumen Radev’s visit to Rome started with laying a wreath at the monument of the legendary Bulgarian voivode and revolutionary Captain Petko Voyvoda. The Head of State is on a three-day visit to the Vatican and the Italian Republic. This year, the delegation led by the Bulgarian Head of State is travelling alongside a delegation from the Republic of North Macedonia, led by President Stevo Pendarovski, to pay homage to the work of Saints Cyril and Methodius together.
President Radev paid homage before the monument of Captain Petko Voyvoda on the hill of Garibaldi’s volunteers alongside public figures, including the Minister of Culture Velislav Minekov. The monument is the work of Professor Valentin Starchev in recognition of the dozens of Bulgarians among Garibaldi’s volunteers, who contributed to the freedom of the Italian people.
Today in Rome, President Rumen Radev officially opened the Bulgaria Gallery to the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in the Italian capital. The Head of State commended the team for their efforts in creating a spiritual space to present to the world prideworthy European-level Bulgarian art. The gallery’s first exhibition brings together key works of Bulgarian art from private collections, never before shown to the broader public.
On the first day of the visit, President Rumen Radev and his counterpart from the Republic of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski were present during the signing of an Agreement for exchanging information and professional cooperation between the Bulgaria News Agency (BTA) and the Media Information Agency (MIA). The Director-Generals of both media – Kiril Valchev and Dragan Antonovski signed the document in the European Commission Representation to Rome.
“There cannot be good friendship without regular information. President Pendarovski and I expect a much more intensive exchange of trustworthy, verified and correct information,” declared the Head of State Rumen Radev.
It is written in the agreement that as per the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness, and Cooperation between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, “BTA and MIA will undertake efficient measures for the information exchanged neither to contain malicious propaganda nor incitement to violence, hatred or other such actions that could harm the relations between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia.” “My colleague, the Director-General of the MIA, and I bear the great responsibility of sharing the story of today to be read tomorrow in Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia,” said Mr. Valchev.
President Radev’s visit continues tomorrow, when, alongside the Bulgarian delegation, they will be welcomed for a Papal Audience with His Holiness Pope Francis. A meeting between the Bulgarian President and the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is also scheduled in the Vatican. President Radev will examine fragments of the recently discovered tract by the Archbishop Peter Bogdan Baksic, On the Antiquity of the Fatherland and Bulgarian Things, in the Vatican Apostolic Archive.
Later the same day, the Head of State will be present at a liturgy in the Basilica di San Clemente, served by Metropolitan Anthony. The next day, President Rumen Radev and the President of the Republic of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski, accompanied by their wives, will visit the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore where in the 9th century Pope Adrian II blessed the Bulgarian alphabet.