Sofia, April 25 (BTA/GNA) – In the presence of the Presidents of Bulgaria and Azerbaijan, Rumen Radev and Ilham Aliyev, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to promote cooperation between the Gas Transmission System Operators of Bulgaria (Bulgartransgaz), Romania (Transgaz), Hungary (FGSZ) and Slovakia (Eustream) and Azerbaijan’s SOCAR. Prepared under the Solidarity Ring (STRING) joint initiative, proposed by Bulgaria and supported by the European Commission, the Memorandum seeks to increase the security of natural gas supplies to the EU and Central and South-Eastern Europe.
It was signed by Bulgarian Energy Minister Rossen Hristov, Romanian Energy Minister Virgil-Daniel Popescu, Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto, Slovak Economy Minister Karel Hirman and Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov.
President Aliyev is visiting Bulgaria at the invitation of his counterpart Rumen Radev. The official delegation led by him includes representatives of the Azerbaijani government.
After the memorandum signing ceremony, the two Presidents are scheduled to officially open a SOCAR office in Sofia.
An agreement for the opening of the office was reached between the two heads of state in September 2022 as Ilham Aliyev paid an official visit to Bulgaria.
As he visited the Marmara Ereglisi LNG terminal in Northwest Turkiye on April 12, 2023, for the arrival of a LNG carrier for Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Energy Minister said that the memorandum of understanding would be signed by “several countries, including Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia”.
BTA/GNA