site.btaBulgarian President, Speaker of South Korean National Assembly Confer in Sofia

Bulgaria has the ambition to raise its relations with the Republic of Korea to the level of a strategic partnership, President Rumen Radev said here on Monday during a meeting with Speaker of the National Assembly of South Korea, Kim Jin-pyo, who is on an official visit to Bulgaria. The two discussed the prospects for deepening bilateral cooperation in the fields of economy, energy, defence, automotive industry, high technologies, scientific research and space exploration, education and culture.

Radev expressed Bulgaria's desire to build on the comprehensive and future-oriented partnership between Bulgaria and South Korea by attracting strategic investments here. The trade between the two countries has been growing in recent years. In the first nine months of 2023, the total trade between Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea was worth USD 344.7 million, marking an increase of 27.2% compared to the same period of 2022. The head of State highlighted Bulgaria's advantages for attracting investments from South Korea, among which are the personnel trained in various fields, the accumulated experience in the field of information technologies, the developed start-up ecosystem here, the country's favourable geographic location, the competitive tax policy, as well as the energy diversification with the ensured access to the liquefied gas terminals in Greece and Turkiye. There was a common view that there are sufficient preconditions for even more investments between Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea, exchange of expertise and technology transfer. The head of State expressed our Bulgaria's interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation in the defence and security sector, including in terms of exchange of experience and defence technologies.

The meeting agenda included the growing interest in the Korean language and culture in Bulgaria. The common position was that student exchange is important for promoting bilateral relations. Korean language is taught at William Gladstone High School in Sofia as well as at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. The Republic of Korea is the first Asian country to offer a full course of Bulgarian language studies in a higher education institution, 

The head of State renewed his invitation to the President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol to visit Bulgaria.