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In mid-August, at the headquarters of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Ambassador Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet met with Atanas Zafirov, Chairman of the BSP and Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria.

The Ambassador congratulated Atanas Zafirov on being elected Chairman of the BSP at its 50th Congress (February 2025) and on the party’s achievements in the ruling coalition. She also briefed him on Vietnam’s significant political, economic, and social developments, stressing the streamlining of the Party apparatus and preparations for the 14th National Party Congress in 2026.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Bulgaria Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet poses for a photo with the leadership of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (Photo: VNA)

Ambassador Nguyet reaffirmed Vietnam’s consistent policy of valuing the consolidation and development of traditional friendship and multi-sector cooperation with Bulgaria, especially through Party-to-Party relations.

Chairman Zafirov presented an overview of the BSP, formerly the Bulgarian Communist Party, which shares a traditional friendship with the Communist Party of Vietnam. He noted that the BSP currently participates in the ruling coalition, holding several key positions in both the National Assembly and the Government.

He expressed the wish to further strengthen cooperation between the two parties, expand high-level political dialogue, exchange theoretical knowledge and policy-making experiences, and promote youth cooperation, cultural and people-to-people exchanges - thereby reinforcing political trust between the two countries.

Chairman Zafirov also highly valued cooperation through the Intergovernmental Committee and proposed expanding into areas such as economy, trade, investment, energy, science and technology, tourism, and labor. He further emphasized leveraging the Vietnam-EU and Vietnam-ASEAN frameworks and welcomed Vietnam’s new visa exemption policy for Bulgarian citizens.

Earlier, Ambassador Nguyet also met with several BSP ministers in the Bulgarian Government, including Minister of Environment and Water Manol Genov, Minister of Youth and Sports Ivan Peshev, and Minister of Labor and Social Policy Borislav Gutsanov. She affirmed Vietnam’s commitment to promoting cooperation across all fields.

In the environmental field, the Ambassador proposed establishing an official cooperation mechanism between the two ministries, facilitating delegation exchanges, sharing expertise, and transferring technology in wastewater treatment, waste management, pollution control, renewable energy development, biodiversity conservation, and resource management. She also suggested that Bulgaria advocate for EU support to Vietnam in the areas of circular economy, green economy, and sustainable marine and forest conservation.

In sports, the Ambassador congratulated Bulgaria on its notable achievements in July 2025 and proposed cooperation in training, coaching, and sports science research, as well as stronger Olympic Committee collaboration. She suggested facilitating training camps for Vietnamese teams, expert exchanges, and annual experience sharing to improve Vietnam’s sporting performance.

Minister of Environment and Water Manol Genov highly appreciated the traditional friendship with Vietnam and shared fond memories of the generation of Vietnamese who studied, lived, and worked in Bulgaria during the 1990s. He stressed the need to soon establish a cooperation mechanism between the two ministries and technical levels, expressing readiness for dialogue, knowledge and technology exchange, expert sharing, and scholarships in fields where Bulgaria has expertise such as energy security, biodiversity, atmospheric studies, and disaster and wildfire prevention.

He also expressed an interest in learning from Vietnam’s experience in developing the marine and ocean economy, affirming that Bulgaria would fully support Vietnam within the EU cooperation framework.

Minister of Youth and Sports Ivan Peshev proposed strengthening cooperation and sharing experiences in youth and sports development. He introduced the Bulgarian National Sports Academy (NSA), with a 20-hectare campus and training programs in 63 sports disciplines, and highlighted Bulgaria’s efforts to build a national strategy on physical education to promote public sports. He proposed exchanges of delegations, support in training Vietnamese coaches and athletes in sports where Bulgaria has strengths.

Deputy Minister for Youth Policy Petar Mladenov shared experiences from effective cooperation with Asian countries, particularly the Bulgaria-Korea exchange program launched in 2013. He emphasized that Bulgaria has many youth centers ready to coordinate international activities and cooperate through EU programs such as Erasmus.

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