Bulgaria, Russia to deepen cooperation in energy, tourism

Bulgaria and Russia on Thursday agreed to deepen cooperation in areas such as energy and tourism after a bilateral meeting.

In the energy sector, the two countries signed an agreement under which Russia will carry out activities on the extension of the lifespan of one of the two operational reactors of Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova told a joint press conference after the signing ceremony that Russia is a very important partner of her country in the field of energy, and its main supplier of oil, gas and nuclear fuel.

The two countries talked about the development of relations in the gas sector and the possibilities for supply diversification, Petkova said.

Sergey Gerasimov, First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation, said in turn that energy is one of the important issues in bilateral relationships, and the two countries have found common ground.

He added that the situation is very favorable for increasing the number of Russian tourists to Bulgaria as a very good replacement for Russian tourist flow who had visited Turkey.

Bulgarian Minister of Economy Bojidar Loukarsky echoed that facilitating the issuing of visas for Russian tourists is under discussion.

According to data from his ministry, in 2014 Russia was Bulgaria's second largest trading partner with a value reaching 6.041 billion U.S. dollars, or 9.3 percent of the total trade turnover of the Balkan country.