Bulgaria and Israel should encourage the implementation of a greater number of joint projects in the ICT sector and our country should tap Israel’s experience in the development of the high-tech industry. This is what President Rosen Plevneliev, who held talks with his Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin at 2 Dondukov street today, called on for. The Head of State also highlighted outsourcing, electrical engineering and electronics, food production and the energy sector as particularly perspective spheres of cooperation. 

 

The building of new industrial zones and technological parks in Bulgaria creates favorable conditions for establishing partnerships between Bulgarian and Israeli companies, Rosen Plevneliev said. “We hope to attract Israeli investors in Sofia Tech Park – the first innovative ecosystem in the Balkans, which opens up opportunities not only for Bulgaria, but also for the region as a whole,” the Head of State added. The opportunity to arrange internships for Bulgarian math students and also for young Bulgarian high-tech professionals in Israeli companies specialized in the cyber-security and cyber-defense sector was also discussed at the meeting. 

 

“For Bulgaria, Israel is an important and perspective foreign-trade partner. There is considerable potential for expanding our trade relations,” Rosen Plevneliev further said. Our country expects that the first meeting of the Intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation will soon be scheduled, where new sectors and concrete projects of mutual interest will be specified.

 

“Tourism is undoubtedly one of them and it has a great potential for development. Our country is a year-round destination for Israeli tourists, who visit not only the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts, but also our winter resorts,” the President said. The number of Israeli tourists that visited Bulgaria in 2015 was about 155,000 people and a greater number of Bulgarians also visit Israel. 

 

The cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector was also discussed at the meeting. “We consider Israel as a potential natural gas supplier to Bulgaria and the Southeast European region,” President Plevneliev said. In the Head of State’s words, our country’s strategic location provides considerable opportunities for diversifying the sources and routes for the supply of natural gas and petroleum and Israel can actively participate in this process. The prospects for natural gas supply from Israel to Bulgaria will also be discussed at the forthcoming third joint meeting of the Republic of Bulgaria’s and the State of Israel’s governments. 

 

The two Presidents highly appreciated the bilateral cooperation in the defense and security sector and in the fight against terrorism. Joint military trainings and exercises of the two countries’ air forces have been conducted in the past years.  The exchange of information between the security services has also increased, and so have the contacts in the military technology sector.  

 

President Plevneliev emphasized that Bulgaria and Israel are determined “to bring to justice not only the perpetrators, but also those who instigated and organized the terror act at the Sarafovo airport in July 2012,” and that the two countries will continue to cooperate so that such tragedies are avoided in the future. 

 

The Heads of State highlighted the historic friendship and mutual respect between the Bulgarian and Jewish people.  “Israel will always remember the Bulgarian support for the young State of Israel in 1948, when it was first established. We will never forget the protection you offered to our compatriots during the Holocaust, when six million of our brothers and sisters died, in the darkest period known in Europe. Forty eight thousand Jews survived the Holocaust thanks to the heroism of the Bulgarians, and their stance against the Nazis,” President Reuven Rivlin said. Later today the two Presidents will unveil a monument of salvation, dedicated to the salvation of the Bulgarian Jewish community during World War II.  

 

The intensive exchange in the education, science and culture sectors and between the Bulgarian and Israeli universities will be expanded, President Rosen Plevneliev further said at the meeting and highly appreciated the partnership between the Bulgarian and Israeli scholars in the CERN scientific programs.