President Rumen Radev holds a meeting in Berlin with his counterpart, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Germany is a strategic ally and a leading economic and investment partner, and dialogue at the highest level is important for strengthening trust in all areas of mutual interest. This was stated by President Rumen Radev to journalists in Berlin after a meeting with his counterpart, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The two held a one-on-one meeting at the Bellevue Presidential Palace in Berlin and led the plenary talks between the delegations of the two countries. The head of state is on a working visit to the Federal Republic of Germany, where yesterday, at the invitation of Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger, he participated in a ceremony to open a high-tech plant of the German defence concern.

The focus of the talks between Rumen Radev and Frank-Walter Steinmeier was on the opportunities for deepening economic and investment cooperation in a number of areas such as energy, defence industry, high technologies and innovation, as well as topics from the EU agenda.

Policy must also lead to concrete practical benefits, the president emphasised and highlighted the endeavour of the presidential institution to attract foreign investments through active dialogue with German business. Rumen Radev gave an example of the planned investments of the defence concern Rheinmetall in our country and added that it is planned to increase German investments in Bulgaria in areas such as aircraft construction, electric mobility, electronics, energy and intelligent systems for safety and sustainable development.

The presidential institution has done its job, convincing Rheinmetall that Bulgaria is worth and should be invested in, the head of state pointed out, and in response to a question whether the German defence concern's investment in Bulgaria is guaranteed, the president added that if the government does not do its homework, the investment might at least be delayed.

The President pointed out that during this year's edition of the Munich Security Conference he spoke with representatives of the Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade of Germany and in particular with the company "Aerotech", which is involved in the production of "Airbus", and at the beginning of next month they are due to visit Bulgaria to discuss opportunities for the implementation of their production in our country. The presidential institution will again organise meetings with the Bulgarian business and the Bulgarian government and I hope that they will make the most of it and that these visits are not appropriated and turned into a PR campaign for certain political leaders, work must be done, Rumen Radev emphasised.

Germany ranks first as Bulgaria's foreign trade partner, with trade between the two countries exceeding EUR 12.3 billion in 2024. The main export products from Bulgaria to Germany include machinery and equipment, electronics, textiles, chemical products, food. Bulgaria imports cars, machinery, electronic components, chemicals and consumer goods. Total direct investments from Germany in Bulgaria as of January 2024 amounted to EUR 4.109 billion, with the leading sectors being automotive, mechanical engineering, trade, electronics and electrical engineering.