site.btaBulgarian Labour Minister Holds Further Talks in Moscow

Bulgarian Labour Minister
Holds Further Talks
in Moscow


Moscow, March 5 (BTA) - Bulgaria's economic and political
relations with Russia were in the focus of talks which Bulgarian
Deputy Prime Minister and Labour and Social Policy Minister
Ivailo Kalfin held in Moscow, Kalfin's Ministry reported on
Thursday, covering his working visit to the Russian capital
which began on Tuesday. Kalfin met with Russia's Deputy Prime
Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, with Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman
of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Federation Council (the
upper house of the Russian Parliament), and with International
Investment Bank (IIB) Board Chairman Nikolay Kosov.

Kalfin and Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich discussed
economic cooperation between Bulgaria and Russia, the Ministry
said.

At the session with Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman
Konstantin Kosachev, the sides expressed their shared view that
it is absolutely necessary to intensify the dialogue between
Bulgaria and Russia regarding all aspects of the economy, the
Ministry said.

Russia's TASS news agency quoted Kalfin as telling Kosachev that
the Bulgarian economy has incurred losses due to the EU
sanctions against Russia and Russia's response to those
sanctions, and the Bulgarian government is unhappy about that.
According to Kalfin, the current difficult period in bilateral
relations cannot be ended unless the situation in Eastern
Ukraine is settled.

"Bulgaria maintains and has always maintained - perhaps not as
vociferously as others - that the tense situation in Eastern
Ukraine must be resolved and everybody should contribute to
that," he said.

Kosachev's response, according to TASS, was that Bulgaria,
having changed its geopolitical orientation in favour of NATO
and the EU, can "play a role of its own in these blocs in the
context of their relations with Russia." "We find that this
obvious potential of Bulgaria remains largely ignored and we
were saddened to observe that it was Bulgaria that put an
insurmountable barrier on the path of implementing the South
Stream project," the Russian parliamentarian said.

Kalfin told Kosachev that he does not see an alternative to
Russian gas supplies to Europe. Reducing the amounts of those
supplies is economically inadvisable, Kalfin said. In
determining the route of Russian gas transit to Europe, Bulgaria
places importance on the conditions of gas supply, Kalfin said,
as quoted by TASS.

Kalfin and IIB Board Chairman Nikolay Kosov discussed Bulgaria's
leading position as a borrower of IIB money, the Bulgarian
Labour and Social Policy Ministry said. Bulgaria is one of the
most active countries in dealing with the bank, Kosov said. IIB
has approved six loans to Bulgarian companies totalling 37
million euro, accounting for 15 per cent of its credit
portfolio. Another six loans totalling 80 million euro are
undergoing an approval procedure, he said.

"The bank clearly supports the invigoration of economic
cooperation and joint investments," Kalfin said. PK/VE

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