The delegation of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Verkhovna Rada, represented by Hanna Hopko and Svitlana Zalishchuk, took part in a Bulgarian-Ukrainian parliamentary conference. The conference was held at the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria in Sofia and was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Ukraine. According to Nadia Azarova, Assistant to MP Hanna Hopko, as she stated on her Facebook page, the ceremony included the opening of a documentary exhibition, which features archive material since the times of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the UPR and Bulgaria in 1918.
During the opening, Olena Chmyr, associate professor of Slavic Studies at the Institute of Philology of Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University, presented this year’s novelty of Den’s Library: the book My Sister Sofia...
Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day
It is worth noting that Bulgaria was among the first countries to recognize Ukraine as an independent state on December 5, 1991. On December 13, the foreign ministers of both states signed a protocol on establishing diplomatic relations, and on October 5, 1992, presidents Leonid Kravchuk and Zhelyu Zhelev signed the Treaty on Friendly Relations and Cooperation between Ukraine and the Republic of Bulgaria. Today Bulgaria strongly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the intention for European integration, reforms, and the dialog between Ukraine and the EU, and stands for the visa-free regime for Ukraine. It was the fourth EU member state to ratify the Association Agreement in 2014.
