Bulgaria and Vanuatu Will Establish Diplomatic Relations
31 May 2018 News
The Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Vanuatu will establish diplomatic relations: this was agreed in Lomé, Togo, between the two countries’ foreign ministers, Ekaterina Zaharieva and Ralph Regenvanu.
The two chief diplomats conferred ahead of the opening of the 43rd Session of the Joint Council of Ministers of the European Union and the Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP), which will take place in Lomé, the capital of the Togolese Republic, over the next two days. The forum, which is attended by delegations of 79 States, will be co-chaired by Ekaterina Zaharieva because she heads the EU delegation in her capacity as President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union.
In 2001 Bulgaria took steps to establish diplomatic relations with a number of Pacific island nations, including the Republic of Vanuatu. So far, such relations have been established with Nauru, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Fiji. This was the first meeting between the top diplomats of Bulgaria and Vanuatu, at which they found that there are no obstacles whatsoever to the establishment of bilateral relations.
Zaharieva and Regenvanu agreed that there was potential for cooperation, mainly within the framework of international organisations. It was emphasised that, as an EU Member State, Bulgaria attaches great importance to the relations of the European Union with the developing countries and seeks more opportunities for sharing experience and building closer ties with the small Pacific island nations. A number of issues on the agenda of the Pacific nations, including the decolonisation process, were discussed during the meeting.
Despite its small territory, Vanuatu boasts an immense cultural variety and is the country with the world’s highest per capita linguistic density: 113 different languages and dialects are spoken in the archipelago. The country is also the first in the world to ban plastic bags and drinking straws, as from 1 July 2018.
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