YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. At the invitation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev and his wife arrived in Armenia on state visit, the Armenian Presidential Office told Armenpress.

President Serzh Sargsyan and First Lady Rita Sargsyan welcomed the Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and First Lady Dessislava Radeva at the Presidential Palace. The official welcoming ceremony was followed by the private talk between the Armenian and Bulgarian Presidents.

Welcoming his Bulgarian counterpart in Armenia, President Sargsyan expressed hope that his visit to Armenia will be held successfully, and President Radev will return to Bulgaria with warm impressions and agreements reached.

“Although ten years passed since my official visit to Bulgaria, I remember that visit with pleasure since it was full of warmth and numerous friendly manifestations. I want to state with satisfaction that during these 25 years we have serious achievements. And despite the fact that we have not fully utilized the potential between our two countries, these achievements are legitimate. They are legitimate as our relations are based on a good historical friendship.

Mr. President, taking this chance, I want to congratulate Bulgaria on chairmanship at the Council of the European Union and wish you success on implementing the priorities of your chairmanship. This is also important for us as we are trying to come closer to the EU.

Once again, welcome to Armenia!”, the President said.

In his turn the Bulgarian President thanked Serzh Sargsyan for the invitation to visit Armenia, stating that he accepted it with great pleasure.

“The mutual relations between our two countries are not just friendly, they are really friendly from historical perspective. As you said, our two peoples have many commonalities in terms of historical fate and they show great respect and love towards each other. We even owe our peoples since they expect from us more dynamic relations. By your invitation and this visit we, in fact, fill a gap, taking into account that such visit didn’t take place for ten years. And this is the best precondition for development of our relations at all spheres. I am very happy that this visit will have a specific dimension. I expect today we will sign four very important cooperation documents. My delegation also includes four people who are presidents of the most important companies, and in this sense I expect that our relations will really intensify in commercial spheres”, the Bulgarian President said.