Government OKs diplomatic relations with Vanuatu
08 May 2019 News
The Bulgarian Government has approved the establishment of diplomatic relations with Vanuatu. That was agreed at a meeting of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva and the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu Ralph Regenvanu. The meeting took place prior to the joint session of the EU-ACP (Africa Caribbean and Pacific Group of States) Council of Ministers, in which over 61 countries and the institutions of the EU took part. The forum took place on May31-June 1, 2018, in Lome, the Togolese Republic, and was co-chaired by Ekaterina Zaharieva in her capacity as President of the Council of the European Union.
The decision to establish diplomatic relations does not involve the exchange of ambassadors or the opening of a diplomatic mission in Vanuatu, and therefore does not entail any further financial commitments.
Resuming the steps to establish diplomatic relations with the countries of the Southern Pacific would help the Bulgarian Government reach agreements with those countries for the support of candidatures important for Bulgaria for positions in the framework of international organizations, whereas maintaining bilateral relations would be in the best interest of Bulgaria with a view to its fuller participation in formulating the positions of the EU on the interregional dialog.
The Republic of Vanuatu is located in the New Hebrides archipelago in the Southern Pacific and has an area of 12,189 sq.km. The leading sectors of its economy are agriculture, commercial fishing, tourism and financial services. As a small island state, Vanuatu is threatened by the effects of climate change such as the rising sea level and the more frequent cyclones of extremely great magnitude. Vanuatu is home to 288,037 people, one-sixth of whom live in the capital, Port Vila. Vanuatu is the fifth island state in Oceania with which Bulgaria is establishing diplomatic relations, after Nauru, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Fiji.