General Secretary To Lam and his wife begin their visit to Bulgaria.

Following the successful conclusion of their visit to Finland, on the evening of October 22nd (local time), the special aircraft carrying General Secretary To Lam and his wife Ngo Phuong Ly, along with the high-level Vietnamese delegation, arrived at Sofia International Airport.

Welcoming General Secretary To Lam and his wife and delegation at the airport, on the Bulgarian side were: Mr. Atanas Zafirov, Chairman of the Socialist Party, Deputy Prime Minister; Mr. Roussi Ivanov, Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Presidential Palace; Mr. Mircho Ivanov, Director of the Protocol Department, Presidential Palace.

On the Vietnamese side, there were: Vietnamese Ambassador to Bulgaria Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet; staff of the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese community in Bulgaria.

to lam 7.jpg — Welcoming ceremony for General Secretary To Lam and his wife at Sofia International Airport. Photo: VNA

The General Secretary's visit takes place at a time when the two countries celebrate the 75th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations and this is the first visit by a General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam after Bulgaria's regime transformation in 1990.

The visit also demonstrates Vietnam's respect for traditional partners and friends who have provided valuable support and contributions to the past struggle to protect the Fatherland and the current cause of national construction and development...

This visit will be an opportunity for the leaders of the two countries to strategically orient and elevate Vietnam-Bulgaria relations to a new level, especially in areas where Bulgaria has strengths and Vietnam has needs, such as information technology, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation, green transformation, and biomedical science. At the same time, it is also an opportunity for the two countries to build a solid bridge of trust connecting Bulgaria with ASEAN and vice versa, Vietnam with the EU.

As one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam, since 1950, the Vietnam - Bulgaria friendship has been carefully cultivated by generations of leaders and people of the two countries.

In August 1957, President Ho Chi Minh paid an official friendly visit to Bulgaria, laying the foundation and opening a period of good development in the relationship between the two countries with valuable material and spiritual support and assistance that Bulgaria gave to Vietnam.

The Vietnamese people will always remember the image of thousands of Bulgarian students and citizens taking to the streets to protest the war in Vietnam. The Vietnam-Bulgaria Hospital in Thai Binh and the Vietnam-Bulgaria Kindergarten in Hanoi are meaningful gifts that the Bulgarian people gave to the Vietnamese people. Bulgaria has trained thousands of Vietnamese experts with university and postgraduate degrees, and tens of thousands of skilled workers…

In terms of politics and diplomacy, the two sides regularly maintain exchanges of delegations at high and all levels, periodically deploy bilateral cooperation mechanisms, thereby creating a foundation of deep political trust.

Two-way trade turnover has grown continuously in recent years. Regarding education and training, the two countries have signed a Cooperation Program for the period 2025-2028 and are considering expanding the training cooperation environment in Bulgaria's strong fields such as information technology, cyber security, e-government, public administration, etc.

Cooperation in defense, security, culture, labor... is increasingly seeing new developments. The two sides are also implementing scientific research cooperation tasks; establishing a Science and Technology Cooperation Committee, focusing on new fields.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/tong-bi-thu-to-lam-va-phu-nhan-bat-dau-tham-bulgaria-2455505.html