What matters is the road to the goal

H.E. Mr. Stoyan Stalev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Republic of Turkey

Stoyan Stalev was born in 1952 in Sofia. He graduated the German Language High School and the Law Faculty of St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. He has a Doctor’s Degree in Law. He has been working as a lawyer, research fellow and senior research fellow at the Institute of State and Law with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Lecturer in Private International Law and Maritime Law. In 1990 he was legal adviser to the President of the Republic of Bulgaria.

He started his diplomatic career as Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1997 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Caretaker Government of Stefan Sofiyanski. On September 9, 1998, he was accredited as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Republic of Turkey.

Ambassador Stalev has an excellent command of German, speaks English, French, Spanish and Russian. Married, with two children.

Your Excellency, you are one of the ambassadors who have for the past 10 to 15 years presented the best face of Bulgarian foreign policy. You have profound professional and academic experience as a lawyer and an impressively rich background in the foreign policy area. You are the highest ranking Bulgarian state representative to Turkey. How have the bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Turkey evolved for the last decade with regard to economic co-operation, finding solutions to problems of social relevance, promotion of tourism, etc?
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the inception of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and a number of countries like Germany, Russia, France, Austria and Turkey. This anniversary provides an occasion for taking a good look at the results of the political and economic opening of Bulgaria to the world and its neighbours, which started after 1989.

The past years come to prove the non-transient character of Bulgaria’s foreign policy priorities, and even the economic ones, notwithstanding the political turbulence and the series of zigzags. Bulgaria’s development has shown that the same priorities existing immediately after the Liberation prevail today as well, i.e. very active economic, political and cultural relations with Europe, embodied by the European Union, in general, and in particular with countries like Germany (largest economic partner), Austria, Belgium, Italy and France; active relations with Russia on the economic and political level, notwithstanding Bulgaria’s NATO membership; and very stable economic and political relations with our neighbours, especially Greece and Turkey, the latter being our largest neighbouring country.

The recent years saw the completion of some substantial phases on Bulgaria’s new road – Bulgaria became a member of NATO, the negotiations for accession to the EU were finalised, close to 85% of Bulgarian economy was privatised. This opens new horizons and possibilities before our regional foreign policy, where Bulgaria could actively promote the introduction and adoption of European political values in inter-state relations on the Balkans. The aim should be elimination of the causes for distrust between the Balkan countries and putting in place conditions for an open European regional policy. These are the aims underlying our bilateral relations with Turkey.