Zaharieva and Pompeo will discuss abolition of US visas for Bulgarian citizens

Abolition of US visas for Bulgarian citizens will be discussed by Bulgaria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ekaterina Zaharieva, and US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo on 5^th of November in Washington.

Before that, Zaharieva met with the Bulgarian community in the American capital.

She said that for the first time in 27 years, the number of Bulgarians who left Bulgaria last year is equal to those who returned to the country. That is why our overseas representations are working very actively with the business for more information, which could be useful for our fellow citizens abroad about the opportunities for work in Bulgaria.

Ekaterina Zaharieva also pointed out that the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU will be remembered with our country's ambition to place the focus on the topic of the European perspective of all Western Balkan countries, and that, according to her, has become very interesting to the United States.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs: In fact, Bulgaria has shown that it not only has chosen a topic which is significant for the whole of the EU and obviously very important topic for the US, but also made it a priority at times which were not so easy for the EU and only in six months brought things that we even thought at first that they were too ambitious.

As an example, she pointed to the Neighborhood Agreement with Macedonia, which according to her, gave impetus to resolve the name dispute between Greece and Macedonia and the courage to advance the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs: We have shown that as a new EU member state, as a country with only 27 years of democracy, we are not only focused on our own problems, but we can bring out an important topic for Bulgaria and make it important for the other 27 countries.

The focus of the official meeting between Minister Zaharieva and US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo later this evening Bulgarian time, is expected to be the strategic partnership between Bulgaria and the USA in the areas of security, justice and energy.