Mubarak Never Made It to Bulgaria But Helped Bulgarian-Egyptian Ties

On April 14, 2008, Bulgaria's President Parvanov (right) and Egypt's President Mubarak (left) negotiated in Cairo the future Egypt gas suplies to Bulgaria. Photo by BGNES

Hosni Mubarak, who on Friday night resigned as President of Egypt, never made a state visit to Bulgaria in spite of several invitations, the last one dating from 2008.

82-year-old Hosni Mubarak has resigned as President of Egypt under popular pressure after 18 days of massive street protests.

Hosni Mubarak was the President of Egypt for almost 30 years - from October 1981 till February 2011.

Even though Hosni Mubarak failed to visit Sofia as President of Egypt, he did preside over the restoration of the diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Egypt in 1984. The diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Egypt were established in 1926 and were terminated twice – from 1941 till 1947 because of World War II, and from December 1978 until December 1984 – as they were broken shortly after Egyptian President Anwar Sadar singed the Camp David Accords in September 1978 which in 1979 were followed by the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.

On April 13-15, 2008, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov had a meeting with then Egyptian Presidency Hosni Mubarak in Cairo during which Mubarak promised Bulgaria natural gas supplies later followed up with a bilateral memorandum.

Back then Parvanov renewed the long-standing Bulgarian offer for Mubarak to visit Sofia in his state capacity, a visit that never took place.

Parvanov's meeting with Mubarak in Cairo in 2008 was the first meeting between state leaders of Bulgaria and Egypt after Bulgarian communist dictator Todor Zhivkov met with Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat in Cairo in 1972.

In 2009, a planned visit of then Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev to Egypt was canceled. The 40th Bulgarian Parliament, however, (serving 2005-2009) did see the creation of a Caucus for Friendship with Egypt chaired by Penko Atanasov.

Interestingly enough, even though Mubarak's regime has been widely described as autocratic – its despotism being one of the causes of the massive protests that brought it down - the website of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry says that Bulgaria's relations with Egypt are based on mutual "attachment to the principles of democracy".

"In the recent years the relations [between Bulgaria and Egypt] are developing in a stable way based on the attachment to the principles of democracy, mutual respect, and mutually beneficial cooperation declared by both sides. Bulgaria and Egypt do not have disputes or contradictions. There is also overlapping or closeness in the positions on a number of important current issues. For our country the necessity to maintain active political dialogue with the Egyptian state leadership is mostly determined by its leadership role in the region of the Middle East and North Africa and by the Egypt's abilities to help for the more efficient protection of the Bulgarian national interests in this region," explains the section of Bulgarian Foreign Ministry's website dedicated to the bilateral relations with Egypt.

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