site.btaForeign Minister Milkov Has Phone Conversation with Israeli Counterpart Cohen

Foreign Minister Nikolay Milkov held a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen, the press centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Tuesday. 

The main focus of the conversation was on the possibilities of bringing additional impetus to the political dialogue at the highest state level, which would allow the bilateral relations to be upgraded and brought in line with the qualitatively new dynamics of the processes at the regional and global level. 

They discussed a wide range of topics concerning the partnership relations between Bulgaria and Israel - both bilaterally and internationally. The Foreign Ministers of the two countries made a strategic review of the opportunities for deepening cooperation in the fields of economy, energy, new technologies and tourism. 

The challenges of regional and international security were discussed in the light of the negative consequences of the war in Ukraine.  

Particular attention was paid to the upcoming events and initiatives on the occasion of the celebration in 2023 of the 80th anniversary of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews during the Second World War.

Bulgaria will be marking the 80th anniversary of the salvation of Bulgarian Jews in 2023.

The anniversary raises many historical and historiographical questions about who the rescuers were, what made this great humanitarian act possible and why it happened in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), in partnership with the Alef Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation Center, set itself the task of answering these questions with the help of prominent scholars, public figures, and experts on the subject with a series of articles to recall the events of the past and the participants in them, and to present the importance of the rescue and the rescuers. Bulgaria and Denmark are believed to be the only countries that did not allow their Jewish citizens to be deported to Nazi death camps. Nearly 50,000 lives were saved in Bulgaria. According to information on the website of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center, Bulgaria had 50,000 Jews before World War II and zero victims. It is the only country with zero victims.