Bulgaria Wants to Scale UP Bilateral Cooperation in 60th anniversary
Visits of Vice President Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Ms Sumitra Mahajan being lined up in November
By Ameya Sathaye / Editor in Chief / DiplomacyIndia.com/ Founder of sarkaritel.com & VN Jha / Strategic Affairs Editor
New Delhi, June 30 Bulgaria, India’s key ally in Eastern Europe, has offered to elevate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “ Make in India “ campaign to the next higher level by not only investing and making leading Bulgarian companies work out of India but also add that competitive edge to the final product by taking it to Bulgaria to gain better access to European markets.
Making this offer, Bulgaria’s Ambassador in India, Petko Doykov, said Bulgaria was much impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “ Make in India” campaign and was keen to participate in it. In fact, Bulgaria wants to make it a big success by taking it to the next higher level. PM Modi’s Make in India campaign is an important initiative which is attracting more and more attention worldwide every day.
The Bulgarian Envoy Doykov was talking to DiplomacyIndia.com editors in a freewheeling interview where he underlined the need for scaling up cooperation in the field of commerce, economy and finance besides strengthening the existing strong ties in the spheres of education, science and technology. He promised Indian trade greater access to the European market through Bulgaria. Bilateral cooperation would move up considerably with the upcoming visits of Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari and and Lok Sabha speaker Ms Sumitra Mahajan to Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, in November this year.
“In the 60th anniversary of Indo Bulgarian relations , diplomatic and economic ties will move up considerably with these visits of important Indian dignitaries to Bulgaria, pointed out the Bulgarian Envoy Doykov.
On making Make in India campaign a bigger success, Doykov said Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister for Economy and Trade during his visit to Delhi in April this year discussed in detail the Make in India campaign and what both countries could do together. “We are proud that three Bulgarian companies have already joined this initiative and are making the required investments.
The Make in India campaign could be taken to the next higher level by forming a joint venture with India where the final phase of production process could be taken to Bulgaria from where both countries could gain direct access to the European market, Doykov said.
The Bulgarian envoy pointed out that this added initiative would render a sharper edge to India’s competitiveness in the western markets.
Focusing on the need to enhance bilateral cooperation in trade and investments, the Bulgarian Envoy Doykov said one of the follow-ups to the visit of the Deputy Minister for Economy and Trade to India was to have the next session of the Joint Commission by the end of this year in India. “This has been discussed in detail with the Indian Commerce Secretary Rajiv Kher. This will give a strong impetus to Indo Bulgarian cooperation in the field of economy and commerce”, he said.
The Bulgarian Envoy said India and Bulgaria have been traditionally enjoying a very friendly and fruitful bilateral cooperation that started way back in 1954 and in 2014 we celebrated the 60th anniversary of such a relationship. So, in the anniversary year followup we want to focus on how to make this relationship go up since commercial economic exchanges are the most important ones, he said.
The volume of trade between India and Bulgaria, according to the latest figures, stand at over US$ 2000 million per year and efforts are majorly underway in both Delhi and Sofia to considerably enhance this volume.
“Definitely this can be achieved”, Envoy Doykov pointed out saying this is what both our embassies and respective ministries are trying to do. Defense production is a promising area both sides are talking about. In fact an MOU in defense cooperation for three years has been signed between the two countries during the visit of the Bulgarian Deputy Minister for Economy and Trade in April this year, the envoy pointed out.
Emphasizing that political dialogue was the corner stone of co-operation between the two countries, the Bulgarian envoy Doykov said “This is the umbrella area which gives impetus to all the other areas of co-operation. Together, with the two foreign services in both the countries and Indian embassy in Sofia, we are working on two important political projects”.
Doykov said that one of the them is the visit of Vice President Hamid Ansari to Bulgaria and the second, in which we have achieved some progress, meaning that first step has already been done, is the visit by Lok sabha Speaker Ms Sumitra Mahajan. “We very much hope to carry out this visit in the month of Nov this year or actually before the end of this year.”
Doykov hoped that the next round of discussions and dialogue between the leading members of the foreign services of both countries would take place in Sofia this year itself. This will take the process of political and diplomatic dialogue further up besides strengthening what has been achieved so far, of which, we are very proud of.
(Additional reporting and Editing by TN Ashok, Diplomatic Editor, DiplomacyIndia.com)