site.btaBulgaria Lacks Appointed Ambassadors in Over 10 Countries, Including US, Ukraine

In more than 10 countries, including the United States and Ukraine, Bulgaria does not have appointed ambassadors but is instead represented by chargés d’affaires, according to a reference check of a list by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria on the heads of Bulgaria’s diplomatic missions abroad. The document has been published on the Council of Ministers’ Access to Public Information Platform.

In addition to Washington and Kyiv, Bulgaria’s embassies in Mexico, Minsk (Belarus), Pyongyang (North Korea), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Damascus (Syria), Baghdad (Iraq), Abuja (Nigeria), Tehran (Iran), Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) are also headed by chargés d’affaires.

Under the Constitution, the President appoints heads of diplomatic missions upon a proposal by the Council of Ministers.

According to the Diplomatic Service Act, the Foreign Minister submits proposals to the government for the appointment of ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary, permanent representatives to international governmental organizations, and consuls general.

In mid-2025, then presidentRumen Radev (currently leader of Progressive Bulgaria) and Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov exchanged remarks over ambassadorial appointments. In the following months, ambassadors were appointed to a number of countries, including Italy, Portugal, Finland and Belgium. At the time, Radev warned that the practice of appointing chargés d’affaires should not become the norm, adding that it was already “moving in that direction”. Zhelyazkov, for his part, said that the proposed ambassadorial nominations had long been submitted to the presidency.

In an extraordinary issue of the State Gazette of Bulgaria on Wednesday, decrees by President Iliana Iotova were published appointing ambassadors to Malta and Cape Verde.