Tonight, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva opened the 77^th Bulgarian embassy: it is in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Within the framework of her working visit to the federal monarchy, Bulgaria’s highest-ranking diplomat signed a memorandum of cooperation between the two ministries of foreign affairs, and completed the preparatory stage before the signing of two other documents of importance to citizens and businesses: that on the mutual recognition of driver’s licenses, and that on the mutual protection of investment.

In the near future, a third airliner, Emirates, may start flying between Sofia and the UAE.

7000 ambassadors in the UAE

‘We have gathered not just to open a new building, but also to take stock of the increasingly close relations between our two countries. We have 7000 ambassadors here: these are our fellow Bulgarians who work in all sectors of the economy,’ Minister Zaharieva noted. Among the guests attending the opening of the embassy were the UAE Minister of State, Zaki Nusseibeh, ambassadors and Bulgarian nationals living in the UAE.

The first Bulgarian ambassador to the UAE, Bogdan Kolarov, handed in his letters of credence on 31^st of January, 2018. Before that, he had functioned as consul general of the Republic of Bulgaria in Dubai.

The number of Bulgarian nationals residing in the UAE has gradually increased since the mid-1990s. This was one of the main prerequisites that prompted the opening of a consulate general in Dubai in 2001, and an embassy in Abu Dhabi this year. Currently, the most numerous Bulgarian community in the Gulf Region, and potentially in the whole of the Arab world, is that in the UAE.