site.btaPresident Aliyev of Azerbaijan Arrives on Official Visit

At the invitation of Bulgaria's President Rumen Radev, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev arrived on a two-day official visit to Bulgaria on Friday.

This is Aliyev's fourth visit to this country, after trips made in 2005, 2009 and 2015.

The guest was welcomed at an official ceremony at the Sveti Alexander Nevsky Square and laid a wreath at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Transport and Communications Minister Hristo Aleksiev, Foreign Minister Nikolay Milkov, Economy and Industry Minister Nikola Stoyanov, and aides to President Radev, among other officials, attended the ceremony.

On October 1, President Aliyev will attend the ceremony for the launch into commercial operation of the Greece-Bulgaria Gas Interconnector. The event will take place at Hall 3 of Sofia's National Palace of Culture.

Azerbaijan is Bulgaria's strategic partner in the efforts to achieve genuine diversification of natural gas supplies and of the European countries in the context of the volatility of the European energy market after the break-out of the war in Ukraine. In 2013 Bulgargaz signed a 25-year agreement on the delivery of 1 billion cu m natural gas annually from Azerbaijan. Bulgaria will be able to receive the full quantity of Azeri gas as contracted after the interconnector with Greece is commissioned.