OREANDA-NEWS. September 03, 2007. Bulgaria, it is of great importance to expand cooperation with Kazakhstan both in bilateral format and within the EU, Ivaylo Kalfin, Bulgarian Vice Minister - Minister of Foreign Affairs, said while paying an official visit to Kazakhstan, reported the Official website http://en.government.kz.

Bulgaria, it is of great importance to expand cooperation with Kazakhstan both in bilateral format and within the EU, Ivaylo Kalfin, Bulgarian Vice Minister - Minister of Foreign Affairs, said today while paying an official visit to Kazakhstan.

At the Kazakh Foreign Ministry Mr. Kalfin met today Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin. As the Kazakh Minister noted, this visit coincides with two special dates – in June the two nations celebrated the 15th anniversary of the diplomatic relations establishment and this year Bessarabian Bulgarians will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of their settlement in Kazakhstan. This September Pavlodar oblast of Kazakhstan will host a special event to celebrate the latter date.

“Current relations between Kazakhstan and Bulgaria are of special importance both in terms of economic and political interaction. Social-economic development of Kazakhstan and Bulgaria has undergone quality changes, and the bilateral relations could be viewed today at a new angle”, Mr. Tazhin said in the course of he meeting.

The Kazakh Minister informed that the intergovernmental committee for trade-and-economic and  research-and-technology cooperation will get a new head on the Kazakh side as the previous head Ms. Gulzhana Karagusova has been elected deputy of the new Kazakh Parliament.

Following the meeting, Mr. Kalfin told the journalists that the talks had focused on the issues of energy cooperation. Due to its geographic location, Bulgaria has been pursuing a policy aimed at development of transit capacities to accommodate transportation of energy resources across its territory, the high-ranking guest noted. According to him, Kazakhstan has been showing interest to the project of a pipeline construction to link Burgas (Bulgaria) to Alexandroupolis (Greece); this route “will enable to transport energy resources across the Black Sea to the Mediterranean”.

In an interview Mr. Kalfin also told about the energy projects that Bulgaria intends to participate in, as well as about the prospects of a closer and mutually beneficial cooperation with Kazakhstan.