Bulgaria, Greece Open New Border Crossing on Anniversary

Karolos Papoulias and Georgi Parvanov in Athens, November 2009. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria and Greece will open a new crossing point on their joint border on September 9, thus celebrating the 130th year since the establishing of formal diplomatic relations.

The new Ivaylovgrad-Kyprinos border crossing close to Bulgaria's Kardzhali and Greece's Alexandroupolis will be inaugurated by the Presidents of Bulgaria and Greece, Georgi Parvanov and Karolos Papoulias, at 11:30 am on Thursday. After that, the two presidents will have a tete-a-tete meeting in Ivaylovgrad.

Bulgaria's Deputy PM and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev will also be present at the ceremony.

The construction of the new border crossing is expected to facilitate the regional connections in the area where the borders of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey come together.

The opening of the new border crossing was announced at the end of July at the first ever joint sitting of the Cabinets of Bulgaria and Greece.

After the sitting, Greek Prime Minister George Papandeou was received by Bulgarian President Parvanov.

Parvanov and Papandreou confirmed the upcoming opening of the Ivaylovgrad- Kyprinos border crossing point located in the south of Bulgaria and in the very northeast of Greece.

This will be the fifth crossing on the 493-km long Bulgarian-Greek border, which already has four border crossings – Kulata-Promachonas, Ilinden-Exochi, Svilengrad-Ormenio, and Zlatograd-Thermes.

The last one is only for cars and was opened in January 2010 by the two Prime Ministers Boyko Borisov and George Papandreou.

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