site.btaUPDATED President Radev Leaves for Official Visit to Vietnam

President Rumen Radev leaves for an official visit to Vietnam on Sunday. On November 21, the Head of State arrived on a working visit to Singapore, where he held meetings with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. The President also attended the opening of a business forum and met with the Bulgarian community in Singapore.

Radev's official visit to Vietnam will be the first foreign visit by a Head of State hosted by the country's newly elected President Luong Cuong, who took office in October 2024, the President's press secretariat said. The visit, at his invitation, will take place on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Vietnam, which is celebrated on February 8, 2025.

Deepening trade and economic relations, strengthening the partnership in education and science, and contacts between the citizens of the two countries and inter-regional cooperation will be the focus of Radev's meetings.

The President's visit will begin with a meeting with the community of Vietnamese citizens who have studied and worked in Bulgaria - representatives of the Vietnam-Bulgaria Friendship Association. The Association, which includes hundreds of Vietnamese citizens, is active in cultural exchanges and in strengthening bilateral relations with Bulgaria. 

On November 25, President Rumen Radev and his wife Desislava Radeva will be welcomed with an official ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi. The Presidents will hold a meeting and chair plenary talks of the two official delegations. Bilateral documents will be signed in the presence of the Heads of State.

President Radev is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings in Hanoi with General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party To Lam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, National Assembly Chair Tran Thanh Manh. Radev will visit the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, where he will deliver a lecture on the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Vietnam. 

During his visit, the Head of State and the delegation led by him will visit Haiphong - one of the fastest growing economic cities in Vietnam and a major port centre. The President is scheduled to open a Vietnamese-Bulgarian business forum in Ho Chi Minh City, the largest industrial and financial centre in Vietnam. In Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City, the Head of State will hold meetings with representatives of the administrative authorities of the two cities. 

In Singapore and Vietnam, the President is accompanied by representatives of Bulgarian businesses in the fields of information and high technologies, defence, the automotive sector, engineering, etc. The delegation led by him includes the ministers of the caretaker government: of education and science Galin Tsokov, of innovation and growth Rosen Karadimov and of tourism Evtim Miloshev, as well as mayors of Bulgarian municipalities. The President is accompanied by his wife, Desislava Radeva