site.btaArgentine President Macri to Visit Bulgaria in 2017 with Business Delegation

Argentine President Macri to Visit Bulgaria in 2017 with Business Delegation

Buenos Aires, February 5 (BTA Special Correspondent Asen Boyadjiev) - "We are optimistic that we will achieve more with Argentina because two-way trade is not very strong at present," Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev told journalists here on Thursday after a session with Argentine President Mauricio Macri during his official two-day visit to that country.

The two heads of State reached agreement that President Macri, accompanied by a business delegation, will visit Bulgaria next year. Until then specialized Bulgarian business groups and delegations will pay several visits to Argentina, in areas that have been singled out as priorities: agrifood, mining and energy, ICT and outsourcing.

In the coming months, a high-level visit to Bulgaria is expected from the Argentinean Foreign Ministry. "Bulgaria is seen as a partner not only bilaterally but also as a country which is at the centre of the Southeastern Europe region. The Bulgarian position in the EU is valued, it is important and sought," Plevneliev said. In both Brazil and Argentina, the EU-Mercosur topic figured high on the President's agenda. "Bulgaria will help Brazil and Argentina, which is appreciated a lot as a political commitment to EU prioritizing the finalization of the negotiations on signing a free trade agreement between the Union and Mercosur. If we manage to do this, I am certain that this will be a major asset for Bulgaria," Plevneliev said.

Macri thanked the Bulgarian head of State for being the first European president to visit Argentina at the start of his term of office. The two presidents welcomed the signing earlier in the day of a cooperation agreement between the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Argentine Chamber of Commerce.

Summing up his visit to Latin America that took him to Brazil and Argentina, Plevneliev said that it had achieved more than planned. "The Bulgarians in Brazil and the Bulgarians in Argentina serve as a natural bridge, they are active and will help us, too. Bulgarian business is set for a breakthrough, we held top-level forums in both countries, a lot of ideas emerged, a lot of contacts were established, and this is supposed to produce tangible results," the head of State pointed out, stressing that the visits were a great success in political terms, too.