President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visits Bulgaria today. The visit comes at the invitation of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev.

In the presence of Presidents Radev and Aliyev, a ceremony will be held for signing a Memorandum of Understanding to promote cooperation between the operators of the gas transmission systems of Bulgaria (Bulgartransgaz), Romania (Transgaz), Hungary (FGSZ), Slovakia (Eustream), as well as the state-owned Azerbaijani company (SOCAR). The document is in the framework of Solidarity Ring (STRING) joint initiative, proposed by Bulgaria and supported by the European Commission, aimed to increase the security of natural gas supplies for the European Union and the region of Central and South-Eastern Europe.

The memorandum will be signed by the Minister of Energy of Bulgaria Rosen Hristov, the Minister of Energy of Romania Virgil-Daniel Popescu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Szijjártó, the Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic Karel Hirman and the Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov.

Translation: Al. Markov