Nickolay Mladenov spoke with his Palestinian counterpart
14 February 2013 News
Nickolay Mladenov spoke today with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, Riyad al-Maliki. They discussed the unannounced visit to Bulgaria by a group linked to Hamas, as well as the fact that the visit by the three Palestinians is not official and they will not be received by Bulgarian officials.
“Our relationship with the Palestinian Authority is a direct one and it goes through the government in Ramallah and the embassy of the Palestinian state in Sofia,” Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister said.
Minister Al-Maliki expressed thanks for the friendly gesture and assured his Bulgarian counterpart that relations between Bulgaria and Palestine will continue to be this good because of the atmosphere of trust between the two countries. “Bulgaria is an important European partner for us, with which we have traditionally friendly relations,” the Palestinian Foreign Minister said.
At the time, the Director of the Middle East and Africa Directorate at the Foreign Ministry, Slavena Gergova, held a meeting with the Palestinian Ambassador to Bulgaria, Ahmed Mohamed al-Mathbouh. In the course of the talks, she too said that Bulgaria has very good relations with the Palestinian Authority through the legitimate President and government in Ramallah and Bulgaria has no contacts with Hamas, which is on the EU list of terrorist organisations.