Hanoi (VNA) – The official visitto Vietnam by Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria Rosen DimitrovJeliazkov from January 5-9 at the invitation of National Assembly ChairmanVuong Dinh Hue affirms that parliamentary cooperation is an important pillar in the relationship between the two countries.

Vietnam has paid due regard to multifaceted cooperation with countries inCentral and Eastern Europe, with Bulgaria being its top priority partner. LastSeptember, NA Chairman Hue paid an official visit to the country, and received the hearty welcome from Bulgarian leaders. During the visit, the two toplegislators signed a new Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between thetwo parliaments.

Over the past time, the bilateral parliamentary cooperation has beenconsolidated and developed robustly, with regular exchanges of high-rankingdelegations, including the official visit to Bulgaria in 2007 by NA Chairman Nguyen PhuTrong, and the visits to Vietnam by Speakers of the Bulgarian NA in 2004 and2012.

The two parliaments have maintained contact, coordination and support for eachother at regional and international inter-parliamentary forums such as theInter-Parliamentary Union and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership.

According to Vietnamese Ambassador to Bulgaria Do Hoang Long, Rosen’s trip marks the first by a high-ranking Bulgarian leader to Vietnamover a decade, following the visit by Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev inOctober 2013. Particularly, it is a reciprocal visit following the officialtrip to the European country by NA Chairman Hue in September last year.

This is a vivid illustration for the appreciation and sentiment that theBulgarian State and people always extend to Vietnam as a traditional, reliableand loyal friend, and one of the most important partners in Southeast Asia, hesaid, highlighting the trip will open up new opportunities to bolstercollaboration both bilaterally and multilaterally, towards the celebrations ofthe 75th founding anniversary of the Vietnam-Bulgaria diplomatic relations(February 8, 1950-2025).

With the above significance,the visit will focus on further nurturing the already robust politicalrelations between the two countries through the Party, State, Government andpeople-to-people channels. On the other hand, it will present an opportunityfor both sides to engage in discussions on global and regional issues of mutualconcern; intensify substantial and effective bilateral ties, particularly inareas of their strengths such as trade-investment, education, health care,culture, tourism, labour, and locality-to-locality cooperation.
Through a busy agenda between the Bulgarian delegation andVietnamese high-ranking leaders, ministries and agencies, he said, theVietnamese side will affirm its consistent foreign policy of independence,self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification of ties for peace,cooperation and development. It will also convey a message that Vietnam is areliable and responsible partner in the international community, and seeks continuedinvaluable support from the European country on issues of shared interest, headded./.