The Bulgaria 2011 Review: Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Ban Ki-moon has become the first UN Secretary-General to visit Bulgaria since 1984. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Diplomatic Service: Tough Reform

The 3 Geographic Focus Areas of Bulgaria's Foreign Policy

Bulgaria's foreign policy has three major geographic areas of focus, as outlined by Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov for Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) in an interview in June.

Mladenov emphasized that the Western Balkans, the Black Sea Region, and the Middle East are the three priority regions for the Bulgarian diplomatic corps under his leadership. As far as Turkey, a rising regional power, is concerned, the Bulgarian Foreign Minister stressed that both Bulgaria and Turkey enjoy countless benefits to having a "very good and strong relationship", and that he does not share concerns about the alleged so called neo-Ottomanism in Turkey's current foreign policy.

He has argued that the fact that Bulgaria is a member of the EU and NATO extends the political power or projection that it has on global affairs; not just providing it with a level of protection but giving Bulgaria more leverage than it otherwise would have had. "Call it what you will, but this is the foreign policy of a grown-up country in the European Union," Mladenov stated.

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry Re-modeled after EU Diplomatic Services

In December, Bulgaria's Cabinet adopted the new Organizational Statutes of the Foreign Ministry bringing its structure closer to the diplomatic corps of other EU member states. The new organizational rules will provide for the introduction of Directorates-General in the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. There will be three Directorates-General – on political, global, and EU issues. They will be headed by Political Directors. The Foreign Ministry in Sofia is going to lay off about 9% of its staff under the new rules of organization, bringing the total number of its employees to 1 350. Counting the layoffs made in 2010, the total number of people working at the Bulgarian diplomatic corps will be reduced by 21% compared with their number as of August 1, 2009.

Arab World Unrest Changes Bulgaria's Mind on Shutting Embassies

In March, as a result of the turmoil in the Arab world, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry changed its mind and decided not to shut down the Bulgarian Embassies in Tunisia and Sudan as originally intended. In November 2010, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry had announced a perplexing plan to save money by closing the Bulgarian embassies in seven developing countries – Mexico, Thailand, Cambodia, Tunisia, Sudan, Angola, and Zimbabwe.

Ambassador to Austria Heads Bulgaria's Diplomatic Corps

In May, Bulgaria's Ambassador to Austria Radi Naydenov became the new Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry, which is the highest post in the country's diplomatic service. Naydenov had been Bulgaria's Ambassador to Austria since 2005. He is more publicly known for being the head of the cabinet of former Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg, Bulgaria's former Tsar, in 2002-2005. In 2001-2002, he was a deputy minister of defense in the Saxe-Coburg government.

Tangled in the Past: The Spy Row At Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry

All throughout 2011, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry as well as the Cabinet, Parliament, and President – were tangled in bitter disputes over the fate of 42 Bulgarian Ambassadors - including the country's ambassadors to Germany, the UK, China, and Russia - on the grounds that they collaborated with the former State Security (DS), the communist-era secret service and secret police in Bulgaria.

Foreign Minister Mladenov backed by the ruling GERB party Cabinet and MPs moved to recall the ambassadors with communist files against the protests of President Georgi Parvanov (himself a former DS collaborator) and the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party and the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms).

At the end of 2010, a special Bulgarian panel, investigating the communist-era police files, known as the Files' Commission, revealed that 192 diplomats, out of 432, who worked for the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry after the fall of the communist regime in 1989, had records of ties with the former State Security. Among those, 42 (or 45%) were current heads of Bulgarian diplomatic missions, including the Bulgarian ambassadors in the UK, Germany, Italy, UN (New York and Geneva), Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, Russia, China, Sweden, Romania, Norway, Japan, Qatar, Kuwait, Syria, Egypt, Bosnia, Greece, the Vatican, Slovakia, Albania, Georgia, Armenia, and Venezuela.

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov backed firmly Mladenov stating that the discredited ambassadors have got to go. In order to recall most of them, however, the Borisov Cabinet of the center-right GERB party needed the signature of President Georgi Parvanov, a former leader of the Socialists, with whom GERB has been at odds.

As of January 2011, the Foreign Ministry prepared to replace the ambassadors with communist intelligence records but has stumbled upon fierce resistance, suffering court defeats in December 2011.

In early May, 13 out of 35 Ambassadors were returned to Bulgaria for an indefinite consultation period, with the remaining ones to be recalled in June. Their positions were to be occupied by temporary replacements. In July, amendments to Bulgaria's Diplomatic Service Act were adopted at second reading. Bulgaria's 35 ambassadors proven to have been collaborators of the communist regime's secret service could be removed from their posts but that was followed by a suspensive veto by President Parvanov, which was overturned the following month.

On January 3, 2012, in the first days of the new year, three Ambassadors exposed as collaborators or agents of the communist-era State Security (DS) won their cases against Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov over their pre-term recall to Bulgaria.

The Supreme Administrative Court (VAS) revoked the recall orders issued by the Fireign Minister to Bulgaria's Ambassadors to the Netherlands, Serbia and Greece, Zlatin Trapkov, Georgi Dimitrov and Andrey Karaslavov, respectively. In September, Mladenov had ordered a group of Ambassadors to return to Sofia on business trips for an indefinite period that could well last until their terms in office expired or their successors were appointed.

In end-November, however, the Constitutional Court (KS), revoked the amendments to the Diplomatic Service Act banning former State Security agents from taking up key diplomatic positions. The legality of the provisions was contested by 56 MPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), who referred the matter to KS.

At the beginning of November, the recalled ambassadors filed lawsuits, stressing the fact that Bulgaria's Constitution defines the President as the sole authority empowered to recall heads of diplomatic representations. After he assumes office on January 22, 2012, President-Elect Rosen Plevneliev will be constitutionally entitled to sign the recall papers, which he has vowed to do as soon as possible.

According to Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov, the changes to the Bulgarian Diplomatic Service Act do not pursue lustration, i.e. a purge of diplomats with communist secret service past, and do not interrupt the "logical development of a career of a person within the system" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because they allowed the former DS to collaborators to hold lower-ranking jobs in the diplomatic corps.

Bulgaria Appoints 9 New Consul Generals Abroad

A total of nine new Consul Generals were appointed by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to represent the country abroad in May 2011. Bulgaria's new Consul in Thessalon?ki is Vasil Valchev, who already took the same position between 2000 and 2004. Alexander Velev, a journalist and former Director of the Bulgarian National Radio, was appointed in Istanbul. Antoaneta Baycheva is the new Bulgarian Consul in Munich, Irina Beleva is chosen for Shanghai, Petya Nesterova - for Saint Petersburg, Marin Dimitrov – for Los Angeles, Simeon Stoilov – for Chicago, Angel Kalinov for Dubai and Ivo Moskurov for Toronto.

Ban Ki-moon in Sofia: You Should Be Proud of Being Bulgarian!

In addition to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was the most high-profile visitor of Bulgaria in 2011. Ban praised Bulgaria for its deepening international solidarity and commitments during talks with the Bulgarian leadership in Sofia, and started his lecture there with a quote from the greatest Bulgarian national hero, 19th century revolutionary Vasil Levski. Ban became the first acting UN Secretary-General to visit Bulgaria since 1984.

Ban, a former Foreign Minister of South Korea, is the eighth Secretary-General in the history of the UN since it was set up in 1944, and the fourth acting UN chief to come to Bulgaria, which joined the UN 1955. The first UN Secretary-General to visit Bulgaria was U Thant (1961-1971) from Burma (Myanmar) who was in Sofia in 1963. His successor Kurt Waldheim (1972-1981) from Austria visited Bulgaria in 1973. The visit in Sofia of UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, of Peru, in 1984, was especially remembered for his declaration that the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples proclaimed by St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the authors of the Slavic script, was actually enshrined in the UN Charter of Human Rights.

While the previous three UN Secretary-General visits to Bulgaria occurred during its communist dictatorship period, Ban Ki-moon is the first UN head to visit Bulgaria after its transition to democracy began in 1989. In 2002, Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, who headed the world organization in 1992-1996, visited Sofia but in another capacity – as the Secretary-General of Francophonie.

Bokova in Tough Spot

2011 was especially hard for the Bulgarian Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova, after the USA declared it will not pay membership dues of USD 60 M over approval of Palestine's joining. The US provides 22% of the organization's budget.

Bulgarian-US Relations: Security and Policing

Expectedly, no surprises here. Bulgaria's ties with the global superpower remained the most important for it – regardless of its economic dependence on the EU and energy dependence on Russia – for the simple fact that Bulgaria's national security continues to rest with the USA. In 2011, Bulgaria's ties with the USA were once again dominated by security and defense cooperation – which was pretty thorough for such a small country (for more information see The Bulgaria 2011 Review: Defense).

These does not at all discard the importance of economic ties, with, for example, AES completing the largest single investment in Bulgaria in the past 20 years – a EUR 1.3 B TPP, AES Galabovo, and AmCham and the US Ambassador in Sofia James Warlick and Bulgarian Ambassador in DC Elena Poptodorova staging in the spring of 2011 the second "Ambassador's Road Show" after 2007, to promote Bulgaria as an investment destination; meanwhile, Bulgarian Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, a former expat in the US, toured America twice, meeting with business officials and Bulgarian communities.

Because of its limited potential, however, Bulgaria appears to remain far from becoming a first-rate US ally like Poland, for example, Turkey (regardless of the emerging differences), or even Romania, a clear proof of that being the fact that the US / NATO missile shield in Europe elements are to be stationed in those countries.

In January 2011, the diplomatic year started with a meeting between Bulgaria's PM Boyko Borisov and US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, in Brazil, at Dilma Rousseff's inauguration, with Clinton expressing support for the efforts of the Bulgarian government to diversify its energy sources. Also in January, a letter of Bulgarian Ambassador to the USA Elena Poptodorova to Republican Party Senators was viewed as instrumental for the ratification by the US Senate of the new US-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 2).

In March, Bulgaria renewed its hopes for a visit by US President Barack Obama when Sofia welcomed US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon, who was on a trip to Bulgaria, Greece, and Slovakia. Gordon did point out that "Bulgaria is good partner and a strong ally in NATO." Also in March, the US Department of State has praised the efforts of the Bulgarian government, and specifically the Interior Ministry, to combat the international drug trafficking, in its  2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Bulgaria, a key US ally in Southeast Europe, has been hoping for a visit by US President Barack Obama since he was elected three years ago. With 2012 being an election year, however, the prospects for such a visit have dwindled. In May, Bulgarian President Parvanov did meet with Obama but as one of the twenty Heads of State from Central and Eastern Europe that took part in a meeting with him in Poland. The Bulgarian Head of State addressed with Obama the issue of lifting the visa regime for Bulgarians. However, no visa waiver for Bulgarians appears to be in sight.

Police cooperation with the USA was at its height in 2011; in April, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov met with US Assistant Secretary of State William R. Brownfield in Cancun, Mexico, at the annual International Conference for Drug Control. In a follow-up letter to Tsvetanov in June, Brownfield underscored the "successful international operations, realized through cooperation" between Bulgaria and the US.

In July, the USA and Europol piled praise on Bulgaria's Interior Minister for a special operation in which a massive bank card clone gang was busted, and in October, the Borisov Cabinet got more positive assessments from Mark Sullivan, Director of the United States Secret Service, who attended a conference on cyber crime in Sofia.

In November, during a trip to the USA, Interior Minister Tsvetanov was received by by FBI Director, Robert Mueller, and  John Brennan, Chief Counterterrorism Advisor to President Barack Obama. FBI head Mueller in turn came over to Sofia in December. Also, in December, US Ambassador Warlick formally announced the opening of an office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Sofia. This came against the backdrop of reports in the Serbian media that the CIA is going to move its "office" for the Balkans from Sofia to Belgrade.

At the same time, however, Bulgaria did get some US criticism: in April, the US Department of State 2010 Report on Human Rights, criticized Bulgaria over corruption and media censorship.  In June, even though 7000 Bulgarian students headed once again to work in the US for the summer, the US authorities imposed new regulations for the Work and Travel Program over "certain types of criminal activity." More criticism for Bulgaria came in June, with the State Department concluding in a report that the efforts of the Bulgarian government against human trafficking are still inadequate but improving.

The Bulgarian-US ties were hardly overshadowed by the text of US diplomatic cables leaked on WikiLeaks – not even by the cables reporting on the murky past of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov; instead, the cables by several US ambassadors in the recent years were sort-of "welcomed" by the Bulgarian public, shedding some "official light" on some of thorny corruption and organized crime issues that were already pretty well-known.

Bulgarian-US ties were also not affected by the findings of the book "Kill the Pope: The Truth about the Assassination Attempt on Pope John Paul II", co-authored by Marco Insaldo, a journalist with the Italian paper La Repubblica, and Turkish journalist Yasemin Taskin, which stated in April that Bulgaria had had nothing to do with the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981 by Turk Mehmet Ali Agca, and that it had been framed by the CIA.

Warlick: More from the Superstar Ambassador

US Ambassador to Bulgaria James Warlick warrants a special subsection in this review – in the very least because of his activeness. All throughout 2011, Warlick was all over the place – commenting on all sorts of issues, meeting with key personalities, and visiting key spots in Bulgaria. He would slam the inadequacy of the Bulgarian judiciary, criticize the Borisov Cabinet, urge an impartial approach to shale gas exploration, admit to using Bulgarian torrent trackers while condemning Internet piracy, have a paratrooper land on him during an aviation show, get tangled in conflicts with Bulgarian socialists and nationalists, give advice on Roma integration, visit the Kozloduy NPP after a nuclear incident, urge Bulgarians to discover America, suffer in a scandal with President Parvanov from a translation blunder, have the US Embassy launch a Facebook page; promoting Bulgarian investments before Texas oil companies. And while many – including Americans – sometimes saw his actions as controversial, his visibility had more to do with his own activeness than with his status as the envoy of the world's superpower. On the whole, Warlick has been a useful voice on Bulgaria's issues.

Bulgaria and Europe: Western Europe

Bulgaria's Ties with Germany:...Whatever...

Germany under Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats has been a staunch supporter of Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov and GERB government, and 2011 changed little in that regard. However, with Germany and Merkel being preoccupied with the euro zone debt crisis and EU reform, Berlin paid less attention to Bulgaria than it did in 2010.

However, Merkel did praise Bulgaria's fiscal stability under GERB, and in September she vowed her support for Rosen Plevneliev, then candidate of the ruling center-right party GERB for the Bulgarian Presidency, who had worked in Germany for several years, after meeting him in Berlin. The German Chancellor told Plevneliev that Bulgaria "seems very well internationally," and expressed confidence that "the government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov will continue this trend." In 2011, Bulgaria also enjoyed a boost in ties with the German provinces – and especially with the Free State of Bavaria.

Bulgaria's Ties with France: Lacking a Strategic Alliance

Bulgaria's relations with France in 2011 continued to be good without being too close. This was exemplified in former Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy's criticism of the Bulgarian government for failing to use France's lead in the Libya crisis to establish a strategic partnership. 2011 was the first in Bulgaria for France's new Ambassador to Sofia, Philippe Autie, who replaced Etienne de Poncins. With France spearheading the Western / NATO operation in Libya and chairing the G-20, 2011 was a busy one for President Nicolas Sarkozy, even though, obviously, the distressed euro zone remained the major focus.

In March, Bulgaria's former European Affairs Minister, Gergana Passy, was bestowed the highest French honor - the National Order of the Legion of Honor in recognition for her professionalism and contributions to Bulgaria's European integration. Gergana Passy, and her husband, former Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Minister, Solomon Passy, were the first Europeans to promote with the EU institutions as early as 2008 the need for common mobile phone chargers.

Bulgaria and Italy: Farewell to Borisov's Buddy

2011 – the year when Italy celerated 150 years since its unification – saw fewer jovial bilateral events – with Bulgarian PM Borisov's good pal Silvio Belsuconi coming increasingly under fire for his bunga-bunga sex parties while Italy's state finances seemed increasingly shaky. The energetic 70-year-old billionaire finally quit in November.

In February, the Bulgarian press reported that Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was the most expensive guest of Borisov to date, with a 2009 dinner for the Italian delegation costing BGN 227 per person (in comparison a dinner for a Merkel-led German delegation cost only BGN 86 per person). In December, Italy opened its labor market to Bulgarians after a five-year transition period after Bulgaria's EU accession.

Bulgaria and the UK: Exodus of the Brits

2011 saw reduced diplomatic intensity between Bulgaria and the UK, while the exodus of British property buyers who arrived before 2008 continued. In early 2011, UK Ambassador Steve Williams departed from Bulgaria to take up the job of Director of European Affairs for the new Channel Islands Brussels Office, and the Embassy was taken over by acting Head of Mission Ms. Catherine Barber. In a farewell speech organized by the Atlantic Club in Sofia, however, Williams criticized the penetration of organized crime into the political and business establishment, and the corruption associated with it, as corrosive for Bulgaria.

Bulgaria and Spain: From Left to Right amidst Crisis

One of Bulgaria's closest EU partners – Spain – saw a shift from a leftist to rightist government in 2011 amidst record unemployment and shaky finances.  In March, Spain's then PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero pledged all out support for Bulgaria's Schengen entry during a visit of Bulgarian PM Borisov in Madrid. In November, Borisov expressed his happiness with the victory of the rightist Popular Party in Sunday's Spanish general elections led by Mariano Rajoy, the new Spanish PM. In the meantime, Borisov stirred a new controversy by appointing Hristo Stoichkov – the legendary forward of FC Barcelona – as Bulgaria's consul in Catalonia's capital.

Bulgaria and Sweden: Getting Swedish Praise

In November, during a visit in Sofia Swedish Prime Minister Frendrik Reinfeldt praised Bulgaria as one of the EU examples on fiscal stability. Reinfeldt said Bulgaria has been "discovered" by Swedish tourists, with 40 000 Swedes visiting in 2011, and confirmed Sweden's interest in selling Saab – Gripen jet fighters to Bulgaria.

Bulgaria and Austria: Fellow-Socialist Presidents

In March, Austria's Socialist President Heinz Fischer welcomed Bulgaria's Georgi Parvanov, after they exchanged visits back in 2005 and 2006, focusing on renewable energy, among other topics.

Bulgaria and the Vatican: Traditions and Some Embarrassment

In January, an unfitting plaque that the Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov opened in 2011 in the church "San Vincenzo e Anastasio" in Rome strangled ties between Bulgaria and the Vatican. In May, Bulgaria's Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva flew to the Vatican twice – first for the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II, and then for the traditional celebration of the deed of Bulgarian saints, medieval scholars St Cyril and St Methodius and their disciples, who created the Bulgarian, or Slavic script.

Bulgaria in Europe: Eastern Europe - Some of Our Kin

Bulgaria's ties with the other EU members in Eastern Europe gained even greater momentum in 2011, especially on the grounds of the fact that two of these countries – Hungary and Poland – held the rotating EU Presidency. Bulgaria would naturally join with them around common positions. In May, Bulgarian Prime Minister Borisov was in Poland for talks with Polish PM Donald Tusk; In September, Bulgaria welcomed the Hungarian President Pal Schmitt, which came after a visit by Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos in April. Both Hungary and Poland stood unequivocally behind Bulgaria and Romania's hopes for Schengen Area accession, which, however, failed to materialize in 2011 over opposition by some Western EU states.

A visit by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in Prague in October where he met with his Czech Republic counterpart Petr Necas will be remembered with Borisov's shocking recommendation that the Western states lower their salaries and pensions to Bulgaria's level to cope with the economic and debt crisis. In December, Bulgaria mourned, together with the rest of the world, the death of former Czech and Czechoslovakian President and anti-communist dissident Vaclav Havel.

Bulgaria and the Post-Soviet Space

Bulgaria and Russia: No Puppies This Year

Unlike 2010 when Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov presented a Bulgarian shepherd puppy to Russian leader Vladimir Putin creating the most endearing moment in Bulgarian-Russian relations since before the perestroika, 2011 was only filled with tense moments going even beyond the talks about the fate of the large-scale Bulgarian-Russian energy projects.

Of course, the major focus in Bulgaria's ties with Russia in 2011 was on the many twists and turns in the talks for the construction of Bulgaria's second nuclear power plant, the Belene NPP, by Russia's Atomstroyexport, the go-head of the South Stream gas transit pipeline project, and the fate of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline ultimately decided by the Bulgarian government in December (for more information see The Bulgaria 2011 Review: Energy).

But going beyond that there were the issues of the Russian gas supplies for Bulgaria – with Bulgargaz and Gazprom supposed to renegotiate their contracts in 2012, and the situation of the growing number of Russian tourists and Russian property buyers in Bulgaria. All of this has been complicated further by the ambitions of a resurgent power – with the Putin regime gearing up to make its project of an Eurasian Union work even as ordinary Russians marched in the streets of Moscow against fraud in the parliamentary elections in December.

In April energy, trade, construction, and military collaboration were the major topics of discussion at the meeting of the Bulgarian-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Partnership, held in Moscow.

In June, the meeting of Bulgaria's top diplomat Nikolay Mladenov with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow emphasized the 50% increase of the Bulgarian-Russian trade in 2010 y/y. During his visit in the Russian capital in early June Mladenov also inaugurated a monument of the greatest Bulgarian writer and poet Ivan Vazov (1850-1921) in the Russian capital Moscow.

Paradoxically, this served as an interesting prelude to another "monumental" case when in late June a group of anonymous street artists (later revealed to be calling itself "Creative Destruction") painted the anyway controversial Soviet Army Monument in Sofia to turn Red Army soldiers into American / Western popular culture characters. Even though it entertained the world for weeks, the painters' work was not welcome in Russia, with the Russian Embassy in Sofia getting infuriated, and the Russian Interior Ministry condemning the "act of vandalism" in Sofia.

Russia's protest came on the exact same date on which the country celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War. Interestingly, the painting of the Soviet Army monument came a couple of days before the 70th year since June 22, 1941, when Hitler's Germany took Stalin and the Soviet leadership by surprise by breaking the Nazi -Pact of August 24, 1939, and invaded the USSR.

Some of the old Bulgarian-Soviet ties came to the fore in April when Bulgaria joined in the global celebrations of the 50th anniversary of first manned space flight – that of Yuri Gagarin – on April 12, 1961, with President Georgi Parvanov making clear his hopes that Russia can once again help send a Bulgarian into space.

Even though Bulgaria enjoyed a record-high number of Russian tourists in 2011 – more than 300 000 – the late summer brought a major embarrassment when thousands of Russians and Finns got stuck in Bulgaria when Bulgaria Air, part of the companies operated by the Varna-based group TIM, canceled flights contracted with indebted tour operator Alma Tour, with the crisis seriously damaging Bulgaria's image as a destination for Russians.

Towards the end of the year, the election of Rosen Plevneliev, a former construction entrepreneur, to the Bulgarian Presidency from Borisov's ruling GERB party after two terms of pro-Russian Socialist Georgi Parvanov led Russian media to wonder if it will affect negatively the bilateral ties. This led Plevneliev to vow immediately that Bulgaria was going to stay close friends with Russia.

As Vladimir Putin's project for an Eurasian Union in the former Soviet space – including Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan for the time being - was to kick in, representatives of the ruling United Russia party indicated that Bulgaria should be one of the countries in Eastern Europe to be "invited" to "join" together "with states that are loyal to the Russian economic interests: Finland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Cuba, and Venezuela", a dubious reminiscence of the not so distant past.

Bulgaria and Belarus: Scolding Lukashenko

The regime of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus came under fire from Sofia in both the start and end of 2011, as it kept cracking down on opposition figures. In July, a Bulgarian travel writer was arrested in Belarus, a case that became an embarrassment for the government in Sofia, as, allegedly, the Bulgarian diplomats failed to act swiftly enough to secure his release sooner rather than later.

Bulgaria and Kazakhstan: For Greater Economic Ties

In October, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan inked an economic agreement Bulgaria's Minister of Economy Traicho Traikov's visit where he met with Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister, the country's Minister of Industry and Trade, Asset Issekeshev, who signed the agreement.

Bulgaria: Loving Georgia's Territorial Integrity and Azerbaijan's Gas

Georgia remained a focus of the Bulgarian diplomacy in 2011, though the situation of the Caucasus republic continues to be insecure. Bulgaria formally says it backs Georgia's territorial integrity, referring to the two Russian-sponsored breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In September, Bulgarian PM Borisov and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili met in Warsaw, reiterating their partnership and sympathies for one another. Bulgaria's Economy Minister Traikov and Interior Minister Tsvetanov paid visits to Georgia in 2011.

Azerbaijan also enjoyed Bulgaria's attention, with visits by President Georgi Parvanov and Economy Minister Traikov, while Azerbaijan's President Aliyev promised natural gas supplies.

Bulgaria: Backing Moldova's EU Perspective

In the fall, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Mladenov was in Moldova, pledging all-out support for the country's "EU perspective", and reiterated Bulgaria's support for the official resumption of the talks on the status of the so called Transnistria, a breakaway Moldavian province without international recognition. In February 2011 the so called "5 + 2 Talks", which include Transnistria, Moldavia, Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), plus US and EU as external observers, were started again in Vienna. Moldova has 34 schools teaching Bulgarian. The former Soviet republic is the home of one of Bulgaria's largest "historic" minorities abroad, estimated at some 100 000-200 000 people.

Bulgaria in the Balkans

Bulgaria and Turkey: Pragmatic and Uneasy

2011 demonstrated that Bulgaria's major dilemma with respect to Turkey is only going to deepen. And it boils down to whether one should bandwagon or balance when faced with the rise of a regional superpower neighbor, which is also the heir to an empire that oppressed you in the past, has a large minority within your borders, and a doctrine conducive to meddling in your business (neo-Ottomanism).

Thus, on the diplomatic and people-to-people level ties with Turkey have been good and pragmatic but a mistrust for its southern neighbor might be lurking in Bulgarian society, fearing some hidden agenda. The Turkish side itself did enough to fuel some suspicions. In July, Turkish President Abdullah Gul was on a state visit in Bulgaria, with cordial talks focusing on business and energy projects. At the same time, however, during a visit in an ethnic Turkish village in Northeastern Bulgaria, Hitrino, Gul spoke without interpretation in Bulgaria – an act that many saw as a mild provocation testing the ground regardless of the fact locals said his speech was about the good-neighborly relations.

The Presidents of Bulgaria and Turkey Georgi Parvanov and Abdullah Gul did express joint will for the settling of any remaining unresolved bilateral issues, urging the two countries' governments to act. In addition to demands on part of the Turkish business about easing the visa regime and the border crossing procedures for the truck traffic – which were raised during a bilateral business forum, several diplomatic and practical issues remain on the agenda.

These include the claims for compensations from Turkey for Bulgarians who fled Eastern Thrace (European Turkey) amidst repressions in the 1910s and 1920s. Organizations of the descendants of Thracian Bulgarians are claiming that the Turkish state owes them as much as USD 10 B for real estate properties their ancestors left behind in today's European Turkey - and that these claims have been recognized with the Treaty of Friendship between Bulgaria and Turkey signed in the Turkish capital Ankara (also known as Angora at the time) on October 18, 1925 (the so called Angora Treaty).

From among the remaining issues, the Turkish side insists that all questions about the payment of retirement pensions by the government in Sofia to ethnic Turkish Bulgarian expats, or the so called Bulgarian Turks, be settled. Some 300 000-400 000 Bulgarian Turks live in Turkey fleeing in the late 1980s when the Bulgarian Communist Party and communist dictator Todor Zhivkov staged the notorious so called "Revival Process" or "Regeneration Process" - a campaign to assimilate first ethnic Bulgarian Muslims and then ethnic Turks by forcing them to adopt Slavic-Christian names instead of their Arab-Turkish ones.

Another major issue that Turkey asks to see resolved is the situation with the construction of a water reservoir on the Bulgarian river Tundzha because of the flooding of border areas in European Turkey by the Bulgarian river.

Just several days after Gul was in Sofia, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov ended up on a not-so-publicized meeting in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which according to formal statements focused on a call to speed up the Nabucco gas transit pipeline project. However, it may have had a lot more to with Bulgaria's sudden tangible warming up to Israel - with the meeting taking place only ten days after the unprecedented joint sitting of the Bulgarian and Israeli Cabinets.

The fears that Turkey might be tempted to interfere in Bulgaria's affairs came to the fore twice in 2011 – in May, when members of the nationalist party Ataka assaulted praying Muslims in the Sofia mosque, and in September, when anti-Roma protests after the murder of an ethnic Bulgarian led Muslims and Turks living in Bulgaria to ask Turkish PM Erdogan to help for the settlement of the ethnic tensions sparked in a village in southern Bulgaria, Katunitsa.

Earlier, in March 2011, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Ar?nc, slammed as "xenophobic" the actions of some Bulgarian politicians (apparently the Ataka party), saying they were causing serious alarm in Turkey. In May, the Turkish Foreign Ministry eagerly condemned the "racist" attack on the Muslims in the Sofia mosque, and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized harshly the Bulgarian nationalist party Ataka.

In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, over the spring of 2011, Bulgaria's government announced plans (to materialize in 2012) to restore the Cold War fences along its highly demilitarized border with Turkey over the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Southeast Bulgaria. In February 2011, the new Turkish Ambassador Ismail Aramaz declared that Bulgaria's entry visa regime for Turkish citizens poses a serious problem in the development of the relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Turkish soap operas labeled a "geopolitical instrument" in the Balkans by Austrian newspaper Der Standard remained popular in Bulgaria, and in April, Bulgaria's Burgas grew concerned by Turkish plans to construct a nuclear power plant in the small Black Sea town of Igneadai, located 5 km south of the Bulgarian-Turkish border. These plans were later refuted by Turkey.

Greece: Bulgaria's Struggling Neighbor

2011 "traditionally" started with farmers in Northern Greece using the winter season to blockade the Bulgarian-Greek border – an issue that has been straining the bilateral ties and incurring losses to Bulgarian companies every year since 2008. By February, the blockades had "traditionally" died down.

The Bulgarian-Greek relations continued to be close but Greece's focus has been overwhelmingly on the country's push to avert bankruptcy with international bailout aid.

Some positive developments warrant mention – the joint policing of Bulgarian and Greek officers of the Bulgarian ski resort Bansko as well as on the Halkidiki Peninsula in Northern Greece – in recognition of the need for trans-border cooperation.

Bulgaria and Romania: Close without Being Too Cordial

Bulgarian-Romanian relations traditionally continue to subscribe to the description once made by a Bulgarian historian – close without being too cordial. Or at least without being as cordial as they should be – given the obvious opportunities to be utilized.

In October, however, Bulgaria and Romania did hold their first ever joint Cabinet sitting in Bucharest – the third such sitting for Bulgaria after the one in 2010 with Greece and in July 2011 with Israel. The Cabinets of Bulgaria and Romania even set up a High-Level Cooperation Council and a adopted a Common Position of the Prime Ministers on the two countries' applications for the Schengen Area.

Joint Cabinet sittings will be held at least once a year, and Bulgaria and Romania agreed on preserving and boosting their EU partnership; they declared their commitments to regional matters such as the EU Danube Region Strategy, the integration of the Western Balkans, the Black Sea region, the Eastern Partnership, the Southeast Europe Cooperation Process (SECP), the Black Sea Synergy, and the future EU Black Sea Region Strategy.

In the economic realm, the Cabinets of Bulgaria and Romania promise full-fledged cooperation for joint projects in an array of policy areas ranging from energy to transit routes, especially Pan European Transport Corridors No. 4, 7, and 9, the Bulgaria-Romania gas interconnection, as well as starting surveys for the construction of two Danube bridges at Oryahovo-Beket and Silistra-Calaras, in addition to the Ruse-Giurgiu bridge and the one under construction at Vidin-Calafat.

In the fields of defense and security, Bulgaria and Romania declared their desire to build further upon their partnership within NATO, the EU, and SECP. In 2012, Bulgaria and Romania continued to expand their joint police patrols to the Black Sea coast, mountain resorts and border areas.

Serbia: Tormenting the Bulgarian Minority

Bulgaria's relations with Serbia have remained tense – though a lot more so on the public level than diplomatically. This has resulted from both historical animosities and specific measures of the Serbian authorities restricting the rights of the anyway wretched Bulgarian minority in Serbia, in the so called Western Outlands.

A major crisis sprang up in February when Serbian border authorities refused entry to Bulgarians heading to mark to the monument of national hero and revolutionary, Vasil Levski, in the Bulgarian-populated town of Bosilegrad, while also banning the locals from commemorating Levski on the day Bulgarians remember his tragic death in 1873. According to the Serbian Ministry of Interior the official commemorations of Levski were dangerous to public order and safety, leading even the largely nihilistic Bulgarian government to react, with Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolay Mladenov expressing anger and vowing to address the matter to the sitting of EU Foreign Affairs Ministers.

This was followed up by a visit to Bulgaria by Serbian PM Mirko Cvetkovic who was welcomed with a massive protest rally demanding an apology. At the end, Cvetkovic made a seemingly half-hearted declaration coming short of an actual apology for the incident in which Serbian authorities obstructed the remembrance of Bulgarian national hero Vasil Levski by ethnic Bulgarians. Bulgarian PM Borisov watered down the issue, and never came close to threatening to veto Serbia's EU ambitions over the rights of the Bulgarians in Serbia – a measure demanded by the Bulgarian public. In a follow-up rally in February, people from the Bulgarian minority in Serbia said they had been driven to desperation as Bulgaria does not wish to defend their rights at all.

The whole issue appeared to be "water under the bridge" at least as far as the Bulgarian government is concerned as it was hardly raised again, during the August 2011 visit of Serbian President Boris Tadic and Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac for joint military drills on the Black Sea coast held for a second consecutive year.  In September, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Mladenov was in Belgrade for a security forum, were he spoke in favor of the accession of the Western Balkans countries. All throughout 2011, Bulgaria's government has been expressing concern over the often escalating tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, and the Kosovo Serbs and Prishtina.

Bulgaria and Kosovo: Backing and Feeding a New Republic

2011 was the year of a major boost in Bulgarian-Kosovo relations with Bulgaria agreeing to supply food to the young republic after Serbia cut off its food trade with Prishtina. In August, Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci thanked Bulgaria for its declared readiness to provide food. He welcomed Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture and Foods Miroslav Naydenov in Prishtina, with several other ministerial visits exchanged, including a visit in Sofia by Kosovo's Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj. Sofia reiterated times and again Bulgaria's position that it eagerly supports the membership of both Serbia and Kosovo in the European Union.

Bulgaria and Macedonia: Haters and Bulgarian Citizens

2011 hardly brought any notable improvements in the official relations between Sofia and the government in Skopje where Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his VMRO-DPMNE party won a new term. In fact, the anti-Bulgarian rhetoric and press publications often bordering insanity seem to be growing proportionally to the number of Slavic Macedonians getting Bulgarian passports on the basis of their Bulgarian ethnicity.

Other than that, in May 2011, the Presidents of the two countries Georgi Parvanov and Gjorge Ivanov declared in Sofia the launch of Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 8 to be a priority – declarations often heard before, coupled with some meager mentions by Skopje officials that the several kilometers of missing railway line between the two countries will be completed some time. In June, Bulgaria's head of state Parvanov hinted only mildly that certain geographical references in the proposed compromise in the Macedonia-Greece name dispute might be unacceptable to Bulgaria but Sofia officially continued to abstain from meddling in the dispute.

In one of the more comical moments of the bilateral relations, Macedonia's naughty authorities erected a huge monument in Skopje of medieval Bulgarian Tsar Samuil, presenting him as the head of an imagined medieval "Macedonian" state. The imposing monument of famed Bulgarian medieval Tsar Samuil, the greatest defender of the first Bulgarian Empire against Byzantium, was erected in the Macedonian capital Skopje nearby the recently ereted statue of Alexander the Great. The absurdity of the situation made even the hands-off approach of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry seem adequate. But Skopje did get advice from its favorite in Bulgaria, former diaspora minister and nationalist historian Bozhidar Dimitrov who urged it to build monuments of six more Bulgarian rulers from the Middle Ages connected with the region of Macedonia, back then a Bulgarian province.

An attempt at closer ties was made in September, when the two countries' top diplomats Nikolay Mladenov and Nikola Poposki agreed in Sofia that Bulgaria and Macedonia are eager to deepen their cooperation on all levels. Poposki, who had just been appointed as the Foreign Minister in the third Cabinet of Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his party VMRO-DPMNE, was on his first state visit to Bulgaria. Mladenov and Poposki signed a Memorandum of Cooperation committing Bulgaria to back its neighbor on its European and Atlantic integration.

Macedonia's Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki also said Macedonia's Foreign Ministry did not have data that 750 000 "ethnic Macedonians" live in Bulgaria, and had not provided the press with such figures. He thus refuted a propaganda piece published in August 2011 by Macedonian newspaper Dnevnik stating that some 750 000 "ethnic Macedonians" are living in Bulgaria, according to figures provided from the Foreign Ministry in Skopje.

Poposki's visit to Bulgaria roughly coincided with the 20th year since Macedonia declared its independence from the former Yugoslavia in early September 1991. On January 15, 1992, Bulgaria became the first sovereign nation ever to recognize the independence of Macedonia.

Earlier in 2011, February saw the end of the Spaska Mitrova case - the Supreme Court of Appeals in Macedonia's Skopje granted on Wednesday custody rights to Bulgarian mother, Spaska Mitrova, who was thrown for three months in jail in 2009 for preventing her former husband from meeting their child. Before that, in January, the Bulgarian Cultural Club in Skopje (BCCS) rose in protest against hate speech by Archbishop Stefan, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, with respect to Macedonian Bulgarians. The common past came to the fore in April, when Bulgarian and Macedonian officials commemorated Yane Sandanski, a revolutionary, on the occasion of the 96-th anniversary of his death.

Bulgaria and Croatia: Who Is Better Off?

April's visit of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in Croatia produced one of his typical perplexing statements when he said that Bulgaria is much better-off than Croatia. Borisov also promised Bulgaria will be among the first states to ratify Croatia's EU accession when he met with PM Jadranka Kosor, President Ivo Josipovi?, and President of Parliament Luka Bebi?.

Bulgaria and Slovenia

In June, the President of Slovenia, Danilo Turk, met with his Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi Parvanov in Ljubljana declaring backing for Bulgaria's Schengen entry.

Bulgaria and Montenegro: Targeting Italy?

In October, Bulgaria and Montenegro said they were planning to establish a joint company which will enter the Italian energy market, after a meeting between the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Igor Luksic and his Bulgarian counterpart, Boyko Borisov. Borisov also voiced firm support for Montenegro's EU membership.

Israel: Bulgaria's New Strategic Ally?

2011 went off as the year of even closer ties between Bulgaria and Israel which smacked of a new strategic alliance – one that might have a lot to do with the rift between Israel and Turkey in the wake of the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident.

In May, Bulgarian Deputy PM and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov vowed in Israel closer cooperation in security, among other spheres, meeting with Israli ministers of public safety Yitzhak Aharonovich, of interior Eliyahu Yishai, and of foreign affairs Avigdor Lieberman.

The major event, however, was in July when the Cabinets of Bulgaria and Israel held an unprecedented joint sitting in Sofia. Before that Israel had only had such joint sittings with Germany and Italy, and Bulgaria with Greece (and later with Romania). This came along the lines of cordial jokes between the two Bibis – BB (Boyko Borisov) and Bibi Netanyahu.

After his talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Sofia, Bulgaria's PM Boyko Borisov refused to give a clear-cut answer about the country's position in a poential UN vote on the independence of the Palestinian Authority. Of course, the joint news conference of the two Prime Ministers was marred by a gaffe when it turned out there was no Hebrew interpretation.

Bulgaria and the Middle East: Cheering for Arab Democracy

Bulgaria and The Arab Spring: A Sofia Platform

The advent of the Arab Spring – the wave of revolutions that toppled the long-time dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, and spurred unrest in other Arab states – took Bulgaria by surprise as much as it did everybody else. The early months of 2011 thus had Bulgaria worry about an influx of migrants – as a small Italian island, Lampedusa, was literally sunken by people fleeing the unrest. By March 2011, however, only 1 Arab refugee from Libya had arrived from the region of unrest, and the fears have watered down.

Much more than the revolutions, however, a typically-styled statement of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov complicated the nation's ties with the Arab world. During a visit in Japan in January, Borisov commented on the Moscow terrorist attacks by saying that Bulgaria counts on its balanced foreign policy and good relations with the Arab world in order to prevent terrorist attacks, and that there are plenty of doner stores in Sofia, which, needless to say, offended Arabs inside and outside of Bulgaria.  A further complication occurred as a result of the May 20 incident in which activists of the nationalist party Ataka attacked praying Muslims in the Sofia mosque, leading Foreign Minister Mladenov to meet with the Ambassadors in Sofia from Islamic countries.

The Sofia Platform came about in April – a highly commendable initiative of Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov providing ground for the Arab Spring countries to learn from the history of transition in post-communist Eastern Europe. The Sofia Platform held forums with high-profile guests – including figures from the anti-regime opposition in some Arab countries, while Bulgarian Prime Minister Borisov declared numerous times Bulgaria's readiness to help the Arab countries that have stepped on the way to democracy.

Tunisia

Tunisia gave the start the of the Arab Spring, with President Ben Ali fleeing the country in January, setting the stage for an unanticipated domino effect in Northern Africa. Bulgaria's major connection in Tunisia's revolution was sending of its first democratically elected President Zhelyu Zhelev as a special representative by Foreign Minister Nikolay Mlaldenov. Zhelev was hailed as "the most important European in Tunisia" at the time of the North African country's first ever democratic elections. The first free and fair elections in Tunisia last Sunday set a great start for democracy in the country, Zhelev said, with his review assuanging fears resulting from the strong performance of Islamist formations.

Egypt

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak resigned in early February after a month of massive street protests against his rule. Even after he stepped down, however, unrest in Cairo continued, this time over dissatisfaction with the role of the military, which took over, to secure a proper democratic transition. Egypt held its parliamentary elections in December, with fears about the role of Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood remaining strong abroad.

82-year-old Hosni Mubarak never made a state visit to Bulgaria in spite of several invitations, the last one dating from 2008. He 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.

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.

Libya

Given the deep connections between Bulgaria and Libya in the past 40 years, it has come as no surprise that the development of the Arab Spring there – which sprang into an all-out civil war with an international intervention – has been the most important Arab Spring event  for Bulgaria.

Influenced by its neighbors Tunisia and Egypt, Libya ended up in turmoil as of February 2011, though hardly anybody believed its emblematic dictator Muammar Gaddafi would be unseated, let alone killed in the streets .As in the cases with the Bulgarians in Tunisia and Egypt, Bulgaria's government organized the evacuation of those residing in Libya, which did not go very smoothly.

The greatest question mark about Bulgaria's involvement with Libya during the civil war there, however, was if it could get some "closure" over the case with the Libyan HIV Trial: the five Bulgarian nurses, one Bulgarian doctor, and one Palestinian doctor, who in 1999-2007 were tried in Libya for allegedly deliberately infecting some 400 Libyan children with AIDS in a hospital in Benghazi. In the trial that grabbed global media attention, the Bulgarian medics were sentenced to death but were brought to Bulgaria with the assistance of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the European Commission, and were set free.

As early as February, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov declared that Sofia might seek some retribution now that Gaddafi regime seemed in trouble. Borisov said that Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi had racketeered Bulgaria over the trial of the Bulgarian medics thus extorting USD 130 M from Bulgaria. He referred to the fact that one of the conciliatory measures that Bulgaria offered to Libya while the six Bulgarian medics were in the danger of being executed by the regime of Muammar Gaddafi was the writing off of the Libyan state debt to Bulgaria – amounting to some USD 130 M or BGN 300 M.

At about the same time, Libya's former Justice Minister Mustafa Abudel Jalil, who soon took over as the leader as the Libyan rebels, stated that not the Bulgarian medics, but the regime of leader Muammar Gaddafi was responsible for infecting more than 400 children with HIV. Abdel-Jalil said that the scandal involving Bulgarian medics was just one of the several serious crimes conducted by Gaddafi's regime against his own people.

In the meantime, just as the civil war started to rage, March 2011 saw Bulgaria's GERB government refuting a report in The Guardian which claimed that it had sold Gaddafi weapons worth EUR 4 M in 2009.

As the West led by France, the UK, and the USA was preparing to intervene in the Libyan civil war – a move backed by the Borisov Cabinet – Bulgaria's President GEorgi Parvanov declared himself against an international military intervention in Libya where dictator Muammar Gaddafi was struggling for survival. Shortly after that, however, Parvanov declared nobody was more interested than Bulgaria to see the end of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, while Prime Minister Borisov made an interesting statement claiming that the military operation against Gaddafi is several years late, and should have happened when the Bulgarian medics were jailed by the dictator. Bulgaria initially stayed out of the military action of the international coalition. On March 17, 2011, the UN Security Council adopted by 10 votes in favor and five abstaining (Russia, China, Germany, India, and Brazil) a resolution co-sponsored by the USA, UK, France, and Lebanon providing for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya and for further sanctions against the Gaddafi regime.

By the time NATO took over from the USA Operation Odyssey Dawn, turning it into Operation United Protector, Bulgaria's President and Foreign Minister managed to fall out again over Parvanov's anti-"coalition of the willing" rhetoric. Bulgaria eventually joined the NATO operation in Libya by sending the Drazki frigate to help patrol off the Libyan coast for 1.5 months – a symbolic move with little practical results for the operation. For a while the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli was the only EU representation functioning.

Even though it refused to recognize the Libyan rebels initially, at the end of June, Bulgaria became the 19th sovereign nation to have recognized formally the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council in Benghazi as the legitimate representative of the Libyan nation in international affairs. Bulgaria's Borisov Cabinet thus reversed its position as of March 2011 when it refused to recognize the National Transitional Council stating that some of its members were involved in the torture and imprisonment of the 6 Bulgarian medics in the so called Libya HIV Trial.

July saw a mess in Sofia when Libya's Adviser on Consular Affairs at the Libyan Embassy in Bulgaria was declared persona non grata. The same day, however, Ibrahim al-Furis, persona non grata in Bulgaria as of July 25, took control of the Libyan Embassy building, pledging allegiance to the rebel forces. Subsequently, however, the consul was not recognized by the rebels in Benghazi, and had to go.

At the time of the Battle for Tripoli in late August, Bulgaria's PM made new strong declarations regarding the fugitive dictator. He said Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi will be held accountable for his crimes against his own people and against the Bulgarian medics in the 1999-2007 HIV trial by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. This was also the desire of the six Bulgarian medics, now having been home for 4 years, but they also urged the Cabinet in Sofia to make sure that they are acquitted.

In August, Bulgaria's Prosecutor's Office renewed the probe against the torturers of the six Bulgarian medics who were held in captivity for eight years in Libya during Muammar Gaddafi's regime, and days later. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov and his Croatian counterpart Gordan Jandrokovic, have issued a joint statement officially recognizing the Transitional National Council (TNC) as the legitimate authority of Libya.

In September, Borisov pledged that Bulgaria will be relentless in asking compensations from Libya over the Bulgarian medics who spent years in Libyan prison on charges they have purposely infected local children with AIDS, and the new NTC Libyan Ambassador in Sofia, Issa Omar Ashur said the new authorities were to open all relevant files to establish the truth about the case against the Bulgarian medics. In October, after the bloody end of the Libyan dictator, the Bulgarian government joined the international communist chorus about how the death of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi started a new era in the history of Libya. By the end of 2011, however, in spite of its strong statements, the Borisov Cabinet had achieved little if anything with respect to clearing the name of the nation and the six medics and getting compensations from the new Libyan authorities.

Syria

Syria was a bit of a "late-comer" to the Arab Spring, and is not quite there yet – if the toppling of the regime head is the criteria. Regardless of months of unrest and thousands of casualties, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has managed to survive throughout 2011.

In April, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov has urged for an end to violence in Syria and for decisive reforms during a one-day visit to Damascus. Mladenov told Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad that he hoped the spiral of violence in Syria will be broken, while Assad explained to the Bulgarian top diplomat the reforms that his government intended to carry out. In November, amidst continuing violence Bulgaria welcomed the Arab League initiative for Syria, which, however, has calmed the situation in the country only to a certain extent.

Yemen

After the dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, Yemen's regime has been the fourth to fall prey to the Arab Spring revolutions – though the bloody unrest there has continued even as President Ali Abdullah Saleh finally agreed to step down. Bulgaria's diplomatic activity towards Yemen resulted in several declarations condemning the "irresponsible" actions of the country's President over the escalating violence that even threatened to break up the country into North and South Yemen once again.

Algeria

The major event in Bulgarian-Algerian relations in 2011 was the November visit in Sofia by Abdelmalek Sellal, Algeria's Minister of Water Resources, with the signing of several economic agreements, and hopes that Bulgarian companies could get involved in Algeria's massive infrastructure expansion program.

Saudi Arabia

In September, Bulgaria welcomed the Minister of Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia H.E. Dr. Fahd bin Abdulrahman Balgunaim in Sofia, leading PM BOrisov to state that Bulgaria recognizes Saudi Arabia as an important partner and wants to engage in an active exchange of goods and different types of information with the Middle Eastern country.

Qatar

In October, at a visit in Doha, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov made it clear Bulgaria's government is seeking to facilitate the inflow of investments from Qatar.

Palestine

Throughout 2011, Bulgaria sought to maintain its position in favor of dialogue and a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, regardless of comments in Arab countries that it has shifted closer to Israel in the past couple of years. In November, Bulgaria was one of the countries which abstained during the controversial vote in UNESCO in which the majority of the member-states of the UN agency voted to admit the Palestinian Authority as a member. The vote taken at the UNESCO General-Assembly allowed Palestine in even though the PA has not been internationally recognized as a sovereign state. It created an international diplomatic crisis, with the Bulgarian Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova being in the toughest spot, after Israel reacted strongly to Palestine's admission, the USA cut off funding for UNESCO (about 20% of the Agency's budget, or some USD 70 M, come from the US contribution), and Canada said it was mulling quitting. Palestinian Authority granted full membership of UN cultural agency after 107 voted in favor, 14 voted against and 52 abstained. The way individual states voted was published by The Guardian in the wake of the vote.

Iraq

December 31, 2011, was the day when the last US troops left Iraqi soil, simultaneously leaving behind much uncertainty about the future of the Arab country after an eight-year insurgency following the dictator of Saddam Hussein.

In March, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov has commended the efforts of Iraq's government to stabilize the country politically and economically. Mladenov met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad. Mladenov said he hoped Bulgaria can open an embassy in Baghdad as soon as possible, and that he was highly optimistic about Bulgaria's relations with Iraq.

Iran

Bulgaria's relations with Iran in 2011 had little newsworthy developments, other than the Bulgarian concern over the November storming of the UK Embassy in Tehran by protesting students. Before that, in May, as a Muslim country, Iran condemned the attack against Muslims in a Sofia mosque last week, and criticized the EU for lack of any preemptive measure on the issue as calling for European authorities to create a safe place for their citizens free of racist tendencies through spreading respect for religious minorities' rights.

Dilma Rousseff, Brazil, and Bulgaria: Much Love, Little Business

In October, a year after Dilma Rousseff, the daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant, won the presidential elections in Brazil, and the hearts of thousands of Bulgarians, Bulgaria got trapped by a "Dilma fever" once again – as Rousseff visited the land of her father for the very first time.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was officially welcomed with a red carpet ceremony in Sofia. She had talks with the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, focused on ways to boost the relations between Bulgaria and Brazil, which are undeveloped, especially when it comes to investment and trade. Parvanov awarded Rousseff the highest Bulgarian state medal, "Stara Planina Order", 1st degree, while the Brazil President presented her Bulgarian counterpart with a Brazilian state order, "Southern Cross".

On October 6, on the second day of her visit, Dilma Rousseff visited Veliko Tarnovo and Gabrovo, the birth place of her father, a highly emotional trip that let her touch the roots of her Bulgarian family. In Sofia, she paid respects on the grave of her Bulgarian half-brother Lyuben-Kamen Rusev. On her way to the Tsarevets Fortress in Tarnovo together with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, Dilma broke state protocol and walked to the enthusiastic crowd, making the sign of a heart with her hands. The multitude gathered greeted the Brazilian president with warm shouts "Dilma!" and "Viva Brazil!"

In addition to the personal aspects of the visit, Rousseff made the first visit ever of a Brazilian head of state to Bulgaria, also marking the 50th year since Bulgaria and Brazil restored their diplomatic relations.

The much touching fanfares around Dilma's Bulgarian visit in October, however – less than a year after she broke the protocol to receive the Bulgarian state delegation for her inauguration – only served to expose the fact that, other than the theoretically warm feelings, Bulgaria and Brazil have little to show for in terms of economic relations.This fact was underscored by Dilma's heading off to "serious business" in Turkey after her stop in Bulgaria, with the President herself explaining that both Brazil and Turkey are emerging as global powers and they need to boost their partnership to mutual advantage.

Bulgaria and East and South Asia: Great Hopes for Ties with Economic Giants

Bulgaria and China: Looking Forward to China's New President

Bulgaria's ties with China continued to develop positively in 2011 without much impressive success in attracting Chinese investments – other than the Litex Motors and Great Wall motors car manufacturing factory near Bulgaria's Lovech – which is still a great achievement in itself. The project for the Bulgarian-Chinese Industrial Zone in Bozhurishte near Sofia continued to progress but with little visibility.

In November, Bulgaria's President-elect, Rosen Plevneliev, expressed his warm feelings and hopes of a mutually-beneficial partnership with the People's Republic of China, saying he would be a proponent of a strategic partnership.

Bulgaria's major trump card, however, appears to have to do with the familiarity that Chinese Vice Presiden Xi Jinping has with Bulgaria. Xi is expected to take over as head of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic from President Hu Jintao in the fall of 2012.

Throughout 2011, Bulgaria and China exchanged several high-ranking visits, including delegations from the Chinese provinces. In May, Bulgaria's Vice President Angel Marin was in China, and in July he welcomed a delegation of Chinese journalists, using the occasion to congratulate the Chinese Communist Party on the occasion of its turning 90 on July 1, 2011.

In September, Bulgaria received  Gen. Xu Caihou, a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. He thanked Bulgaria for adhering to the policy of "One China", i.e. abstaining from establishing formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan – which was confirmed once again by Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov at their meeting.

Bulgaria has reiterated an earlier invite for a visit by Hu to Bulgaria; if he comes to Bulgaria before his term as President of the PRC expires in 2013, Hu will be become the first Chinese President to visit Bulgaria.

In June, in Chinese PM Wen Jiabao's speech in Budapest, China offered the region of Central and Eastern Europe a five-point proposal designed to give a boost to the bilateral cooperation and economic and people to people ties. This happened at the "China - Central and Eastern European Countries Economic and Trade Forum".

In March, the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria (NAMRB) and the China International Friendship Cities Association (CIFCA) signed a Framework Memorandum of Cooperation in China. The end of 2011 saw a visit to China by Bulgarian Defense Minister Anyu Angelov.

Bulgaria and Japan: Never Ending Hopes for Investments

The diplomatic year started in January 2011 with a state visit by a Bulgarian government delegation in Japan, which, however, was marred by gaffes on part of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. For example, at one point Borisov, who has 7th dan black belt in karate and is the chairman of the Bulgarian Karate Federation, demonstrated his skills on his utterly embarrassed Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov.

Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, met with Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito at the Akasaka residence, and invited him to visit Bulgaria. The two acknowledged the good relations between Bulgaria and Japan. Borisov also held talks with with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the Chairman of Nippon Keidanren Hiromasa Yonekura and the management of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). Borisov promised backing for an EU-Japan free trade agreement to the extent that the Bulgarian government is capable of influencing the process. The Bulgarian government delegation completed its four-day visit in Japan with traditional rituals in the presence of Bulgarian sumo wrestler Kaloyan Mahlyanov, aka Kotooshu.

In January, Japan's new Ambassador to Bulgaria Makoto Ito said Japanese companies are eager to explore investment opportunities in Bulgaria. October and November were declared special months of the Japanese culture in Bulgaria.

As Japan suffered from the unprecedented 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011, Bulgaria has declared solidarity, and has provided BGN 216 000 in humanitarian aid. No Bulgarians got injured or killed in the disaster that caused a nuclear emergency at the Fukushima NPP. However, in the aftermath of the incident Bulgaria's consul in Tokyo, Chavdar Gradinarski was revealed to have fled Japan, i.e. leaving without coordinating it with Bulgarian authorities.

Bulgaria and South Korea: More Hopes for Investments

In September, South Korea's Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik was in Bulgaria on a three-day visit that spurred hopes to boost the bilateral economic relations as well as the appreciation of Bulgaria's cultural heritage in Korea, with PM Kim visiting the Old Town in Plovdiv.

In January, the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, a NGO, sent a letter to the key EU institutions in order to promote EU's active participation in the unification of the Korean Peninsula in the wake of high-level visit to South Korea by a Club delegation.

Bulgaria and India: Still Missing the Indian Plane

Bulgarian-Indian relations saw some major activity in 2011, and it was a good one, probably giving officials in New Delhi a hearty laugh, when in November the delegation led by Bulgarian Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva missed her plane for the Indian capital. When she finally made it to India, Tsacheva and her delegation, which included government ministers, signed several cooperation agreements, paid tribute to the Raj Ghat monument to Mahatma Gandhi, and invited Indian investors to use Bulgaria as a door to the EU market. So far, so good.

Bulgaria and Pakistan: (Key) Players in Afghanistan

In January, Bulgaria sent humanitarian aid of BGN 117 350 to flood-devastated Pakistan. Shortly before a visit by Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov, the first ever visit of a Bulgarian top diplomat to Pakistan. The Bulgarian top diplomat and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi have declared a complete convergence of their views on the situation in Afghanistan. Both ministers agreed that there should be guarantees that after 2014, the Afghan national army will be able to handle the security of the country. Bulgaria's Foreign Minister was also welcomed by Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Gillani, who thanked Bulgaria for its relief help for the victims of the Pakistani flood that hit the country in the summer of 2010.

Bulgaria and Africa

Even though Africa is traditionally Bulgaria's most neglected foreign policy destination, it saw some activity in 2011.

In September, Bulgaria welcomed Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa.

In October, Bulgaria and Senegal signed several agreements, during the visit of Senegalese Foreign Minister Madike Niang in Sofia.

In April, Bulgaria's Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, and his Zambian counterpart, Situmbeko Mosokotwane, signed an agreement waiving USD 6.3 M or 77% of Zambian debt to Bulgaria, which has not been serviced in the past 20 years. The USD 6.3 M will be used as development aid. The remainder of Zambia's debt – a total of USD1.886 M was to be paid in four installments within one year.

A Bulgarian air crew of three men was abducted in Sudan by armed men on January 13, at a landing strip in Um Shalaya, 60 kilometers southeast of the West Darfur capital of El Geneina. They were working for WFP's United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) as employees of the Heli Air company. The men were released with UN help in June, without any ransom payment by Bulgaria, according to the government in Sofia.

In July, Bulgaria recognized the world's newest sovereign state - South Sudan, which held on July 9, 2011, its independence ceremony; Sofia promised to launch diplomatic relations with the government of South Sudan.

Australia, New Zealand Appoint New Ambassador to Bulgaria

In February, career diplomat Vangelis Vitalis was appointed New Zealand's new Ambassador to the EU, also accredited in Bulgaria.

In July, Australia named Jenny Bloomfield is to be its new Ambassador to Greece with non-resident accreditation to Albania and Bulgaria.

Royal Connections

In April, Bulgaria's former Tsar and Prime Minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, got invited to the British Royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, sending them special congratulations later. The newly wedded British royal couple of Prince William and Kate Middleton does not have Bulgarian cousins yet as they will be seventh cousins with former Bulgarian Tsar Simeon Saxe-Coburg's future great-grand children.

Simeon Saxe-Coburg, Tsar of Bulgaria in 1943-1946, and Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2001-2005, together with his wife Margarita Gomez-Acebo y Cejuela are the only Bulgarian representatives invited at the British royal wedding - as Simeon Saxe-Coburg is fourth cousin of Queen Elizabeth II's father, George VI. The lineage of the British and Bulgarian royal families is traced back to Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1750-1806), the patrilineal ancestor of Elizabeth II of Britain, Albert II of Belgium, and Simeon II of Bulgaria, and his wife Auguste.

In July, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, Bulgaria's former Tsar, attended the funeral of Otto von Habsburg, the last crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Vienna.

The Rush for Bulgarian Passports

2011 has brought a heightened desire to obtain Bulgarian passports by ethnic Bulgarians from Macedonia and Moldova, among other countries.

In December alone, in less than a month, the number of Macedonians with Bulgarian passports has increased by 7 000 people. It reached 42 372 compared to 35 808 a month earlier, according to Foreign Ministry data. The reason for this strong interest is believed to be the fact that in 2014 all European Union countries will open their labor markets for Bulgarian citizens.

In January-September 2011, Bulgaria granted citizenship to 11 441, while 125 individuals gave up their Bulgarian passports. The fastest processing of the applications for citizenship has been declared a priority by the cabinet of the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party after it took office in the summer of 2009. The frontrunner of the initiative was the Minister without Portfolio for Bulgarians Abroad, Bozhidar Dimitrov, who later resigned, but a record number of applications were approved in 2010 under his leadership – nearly 15 000 compared to 9 000 in 2009 and 7 113 in 2008 with the trend continuing in 2011.

Thus, in the first nine months of 2011, the most passports in 2011 have been granted to people with Bulgarian origins – 5 533 from Macedonia and 1 593 from Moldova. A total of 16 271 applications have been processed and 4 514 have been rejected with the main and most common reason being false documents.

From January 1, 2002, until June 30, 2011, Bulgaria received 127 006 citizenship applications and granted passports to 68 539, according to data from the President's Office – mainly to people with Bulgarian origins or having at least one Bulgarian parent – 35 808 from Macedonia, 18 646 from Moldova, 3 318 from Serbia, 2 733 from Russia, 2 526 from the Ukraine, 2 081 from Israel, 1128 from Albania.

Bulgarian Expats

The effect of meetings with Bulgarian expats and historic Bulgarian minority communities from San Diego to Albania and Moldova by Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, who is in charge of ties with the Bulgarian diaspora, has largely been marred by the literal disenfranchising of thousands of Bulgarian expats over tight deadlines and other issues for the organizing of the Bulgarian presidential election polling stations abroad.

In March 2011, Bulgaria's Finance Minister Simeon Djankov announced that the government has an idea for creating a web portal for expats.

As a whole, however, Bulgaria's diaspora around the world demonstrated relatively little involvement in the nation's domestic affairs, with tens of thousands of Bulgarians emigrating, which has worsened further the country's demographic crisis.

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