President Rumen Radev: Bulgaria has the ambition to raise its relations with the Republic of Korea to the level of a strategic partnership

Bulgaria has the ambition to raise its relations with the Republic of Korea to the level of a strategic partnership. This was stated by the head of state Rumen Radev during a meeting in the presidential institution with the chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Kim Jin-pyo, who is on an official visit to our country. During the conversation, prospects for deepening bilateral cooperation in the fields of economy, energy, defense, automobile industry, high technology, scientific research and space exploration, education and culture were discussed.

The President expressed the desire of our country that the comprehensive and future-oriented partnership between Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea be upgraded, including through the attraction of strategic investments in our country. Trade between the two countries has been growing in recent years, and in the first 9 months of 2023, the total trade between Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea was worth 344.7 million US dollars and marked an increase of 27.2% compared to the same period in 2022. The head of state highlighted the advantages of Bulgaria for attracting investments from the Republic of Korea, among which are the prepared personnel in a number of fields, the accumulated experience in the field of information technologies, the developed startup ecosystem in our country, the favorable geographical location, the competitive tax policy, as well as the energy diversification with the guaranteed free access to the terminals for liquefied gas in Greece and Turkey, which guarantees reliability of supply and low prices for the energy used by the business. The general position was that there are sufficient prerequisites for even more investments between Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea, exchange of expertise and technology transfer. During the meeting, the head of state expressed our country's interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation in the field of defense and security, including the exchange of experience and defense technologies.

During the conversation, the growing interest in the Korean language and culture in Bulgaria was also discussed. Student exchange is important for promoting bilateral relations, was the common position during the meeting. Korean language is studied from the first grade at the 18th SU "William Gladstone" in Sofia, as well as at the "Korean Studies" department at the SU "St. Kliment Ohridski". The Republic of Korea is the first Asian country to offer a full Bulgarian language course at a university. Since 2019, Hankook University in Seoul has had a Center for Bulgarian Studies at the Department of Greek and Bulgarian Studies.

The head of state renewed his invitation to the President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Seok-yeol to visit our country.