“During the past four years the political dialogue between Bulgaria and Serbia has probably been at its most intensive and productive in the history of bilateral relations. Over this period trade between the two countries has almost doubled,” said for the BNR the Ambassador of Bulgaria to Serbia Radko Vlaykov whose term of office is nearing its end.

In his words “there are visibly positive changes in the position of the Bulgarian minority” in Serbia. Ambassador Vlaykov added that in the last century it was “trampled and stomped on”, the blame for which goes to the Yugoslav and the Bulgarian totalitarian state. He pointed out that a mechanism has now been found for the problems of the people from the Bulgarian minority to be understood and solved, “for giving them the courage not to be afraid or ashamed to call themselves Bulgarian, but to be proud of it instead.”