site.btaNational News Agencies of Bulgaria, Yemen Sign Cooperation Agreement

The national news agencies of Bulgaria and Yemen will exchange news under a cooperation agreement which was signed in Aden by the leaders of the two organizations. The document was undersigned by Kiril Valchev, the Director General of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Chairman of the Management Board and Editor-in-Chief of the Yemeni news agency SABA, Abdullah Ahmed Hezam, after conferring with Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed.

The agreement provides for each party to receive the other party's full set of English-language news feeds, and both parties have the right to use this information in their news services free of charge. According to the agreement, each of the two agencies will offer the other one of its own news items of importance from its country each day, with English text and a photograph, which the other agency will publish on its distribution channels for free use. The agreement also provides for the possibility of exchanges of experience and professional visits by journalists.

The BTA Director General said: "BTA seeks to restore the exchange of information with the national news agency of Yemen as a country in a region that is important for Bulgaria. It is more familiar to Bulgarians today with news about threats that come from it - the civil war, illegal emigration, including migrants from the Horn of Africa passing through Yemen to Europe, and terrorism. The current example of terrorism is Sunday's hijacking of a ship in the Red Sea with Bulgarians in the crew, and any additional information from the region itself on cases like this could be helpful. But there are also news related opportunities. First of all, more news from Bulgaria in Yemen will provide more opportunities for Bulgarian universities to educate Yemeni students because there are many young people in the country whose families have fond memories of studying in Bulgaria in the past. More news from Yemen will also allow companies from Bulgaria, whose builders also have many good memories in Yemen, to be informed about opportunities to get involved in the reconstruction of the country from the civil war. And the fact that the largest number of tourists on the Yemeni island of Socotra in the month with available statistics - December 2022 - are from Bulgaria, means that there should also be information for Bulgarians already travelling to this region." 

Valchev recalled that SABA is the 38th national news agency with which BTA has agreed on a daily free exchange of news. "In the Middle East region, BTA has such agreements with the national news agencies of Israel, Iran, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which allow for diverse sources of information from the region for all Bulgarian media and, accordingly, the dissemination of BTA news from Bulgaria in this region," the BTA director general noted. He specially thanked Ahmed Mohamed Ali Shamer, the Yemeni Charge d'Affaires in Bulgaria, for his assistance in signing the agreement between BTA and SABA.

Prime Minister Saeed noted the good ties with Bulgaria in the past, which he wants to be restored. As a result of this cooperation, there are many Yemenis who have graduated from Bulgarian universities, including people in high state positions, ambassadors, university rectors, doctors, teachers, engineers, economists, military officers and others, Saeed said. He also highlighted the many construction projects with Bulgarians' participation.

The BTA Director General spoke in Bulgarian with Fadl Alshairi, Assistant Secretary General for Planning and Programming to the Prime Minister of Yemen. He graduated in Sociology from St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia in 1986-1993 and completed his PhD at the Southwestern University of Neofit Rilski in 2011. According to Fadl, more than 5,000 Yemenis have graduated from Bulgarian universities and among them have been military officers, doctors, economists, engineers, teachers, professors, MPs. "It can be said that even now in every Yemeni ministry there are at least one, two, three who know Bulgarian, and the general opinion is that the best students in Yemen are those who graduated in Bulgaria," Fadl said. 

Valchev also spoke in Bulgarian with Khalid Ali, who graduated in medicine in the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv more than 30 years ago. He worked as a dentist on Socotra together with two other doctors who studied in Bulgaria. "Bulgaria is my home away from home. I love Bulgaria! I am from Bulgaria," said Khalid Ali.

Aden Governor Ahmed Lamlas showed the BTA Director General new constructions and investment projects in the city. "Our goal is to restore normal life," Lamlas stressed. 

The Governor of Socotra, Raffet Al-Thaqali, gave the opportunity to the Director General of BTA to see sites showing the possibilities for participation of Bulgarian companies in the construction on the island, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Bulgaria established diplomatic relations with the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) in 1962 and with the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) in 1967. These have been suspended since 2020 due to the situation of insecurity in the country. Yemen has an embassy in Sofia. In 2007, the Bulgarian Parliament ratified a cooperation agreement between Bulgaria and Yemen.
BTA has signed a total of 38 such cooperation agreements, which provide all Bulgarian media with a free opportunity to use news - in addition to global agencies from which BTA buys information - from the national news agencies of Azerbaijan, Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Cyprus, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Ghana, Greece, Israel, India, Iran, Italy, Montenegro, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Moldova, Mongolia, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Poland, the Philippines, the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Vietnam.

Valchev is in Yemen after participating in the Global Media Congress in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.