In a phone call to his Azerbaijani colleague Ilham Aliyev, President Rumen Radev called for flexibility in implementing the bilateral agreement for natural gas supplies to Bulgaria

Developing partnership with Azerbaijan in energy strengthens real diversification in natural gas supplies, not only to Bulgaria, but to the entire European Union, stated President Rumen Radev, who held a phone call today with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The two discussed current topics in cooperation in energy, as well as further deepening political dialogue at the highest level.

Both shared the position that the delayed construction of the Bulgaria-Greece gas interconnector in recent years is the main impediment facing our country to importing the entire volume of 1 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually from Azerbaijan, for which a bilateral agreement has been concluded. Rumen Radev emphasised that measures are being undertaken to catch up on the delay, and entry into exploitation for the intersystem gas connection with Greece is expected to happen next year. Therefore, the Head of State called for flexibility in implementing the bilateral agreement for natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria, so that our country does not report losses until the actual construction of the natural gas transmission network.

During the conversation, President Ilham Aliyev expressed readiness to lead a dialogue on this issue and pointed out that, in addition to exporting natural gas to Bulgaria, Azerbaijan is already importing electricity to our country through the territory of the Republic of Turkey.

Rumen Radev underlined the importance of the created socio-innovative centres in Azerbaijan for modernising the country. The Bulgarian Head of State reiterated his invitation to President Ilham Aliyev to visit Bulgaria at a time suitable for him, emphasising that such a visit will contribute to further deepening the bilateral dialogue at the highest level, as well as to developing bilateral cooperation between the two states.