Meeting with President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev

Vladimir Putin met with President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev at the Konstantin Palace. The meeting was held as part of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Interaction in the energy sector (energy resources account for 75 percent of exports from Russia to Bulgaria) was one of the key topics of discussion. Cooperation between the two countries, which mark the 140th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations this year, in other areas, in particular, in culture and education, was also discussed.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, colleagues,

Welcome to St Petersburg. Mr President, I am very pleased to see you again.

First of all, I would like to say that relations between Russia and Bulgaria are gradually being restored. We see small, but steady growth in trade which increased 2.8 percent in the first quarter.

In general, in terms of absolute figures, we could have achieved much more, of course, but the good part is that relations at the government and parliament levels have now become more active and the intergovernmental commission has resumed its work.

All this is a good enough reason to believe that we are using untapped opportunities to step up our relations across almost all areas.

We are very pleased to see you, welcome. I hope your stay and work at the St Petersburg Economic Forum will be both interesting and productive.

To be continued.

Source http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/60676