On the sidelines of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation meeting in Sochi, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov met for talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. In Bulgaria the meeting of the two top diplomats was expected with interest as it would be the first meeting at this level in the past two years. On the day before the talks Minister Mitov had presented in parliament the Bulgarian position about the forthcoming NATO summit in Warsaw. They coincided with a string of refutations that Bulgaria had intended to take part in a regional fleet aimed to curb the growing Russian presence in the Black Sea. Shortly after Mitov's meeting with Lavrov Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said Mitov had been sent to the talks with the assignment to normalize if possible, Russia's strongly critical position to Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian foreign minister said that his conversation with Sergei Lavrov had been very open and that he had tabled most of the pending questions and problems which had accumulated over time.

In the context of his assignment, Mitov has again given assurances to Lavrov that Bulgaria will not take part in regional military formations in the Black Sea and its actions in the region will be held exclusively under NATO aegis in compliance with the Montreux Convention limiting the time of stay in the Black Sea of warships of non-Black Sea countries. Daniel Mitov has also assured his counterpart that Bulgaria does not accept NATO exercises in the Black Sea as a measure against Russia but rather as an opportunity for the development of its own defense. Obviously, solving the problem of naval activity in the region will not be a function of any kind of specific national policy but of the relations of NATO and Russia.

The same state of affairs is seen in the energy sector which has generated strong tensions in bilateral relations. During his talks with Lavrov, Daniel Mitov has been explicit that “all energy projects in the territory of Bulgaria should be implemented in compliance with European law.” What follows from this is that the expectations of the Bulgarian cabinet for unfreezing the project for the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline and its inclusion in plans for building a gas hub in Varna are not a function of Bulgaria's national policy either, but a function of agreements between Russia and the European Union. Another issue in Bulgaria-Russia relations is about sanctions and counter-sanctions between the EU and Russia but they, too, are not up to Bulgaria's will, and as PM Boyko Borissov has guessed these sanctions will not be dropped this year. He expects possible alleviation of sanctions next year, only in the sector of agriculture.

Probably because of all this though the Sochi talks of the foreign ministers of Bulgaria and Russia were held in an open manner, they were mostly covered by Bulgarian media, while Russian ones chose to skip them. In contrast, the talks of Sergei Lavrov with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu were described as very friendly. Minister Lavrov gave no comment about his talks with Mitov but on the occasion of the ones with Çavuşoğlu he made it clear that following the shooting down of a Russian military aircraft by the Turksih Air Force, relations between Moscow and Ankara were returning to normal and bilateral contacts especially in the military sphere would develop.

While in Sochi the Turkish minister announced readiness for an early meeting of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with President Vladimir Putin, in Sofia PM Boyko Borrisov commented that there had been no plans for his meeting with Vladimir Putin because such meetings were made if there would be anything to negotiate or offer. He implied that we should not be looking forward to any specific "normalization" of relations with Russia, because for the time being, it would not be more than wishful thinking.

English Daniela Konstantinova