In 1868 Belgium opened its consulate in the Bulgarian city of Ruse, which was then within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarians’ links with and knowledge about Belgium date from long before the opening of this Belgian consulate in the Danube city. From the middle of the 19th c. many Bulgarians studied in Belgian schools or visited Belgian cities on business. The Bulgarian pre-Liberation press often carried articles and information about Belgium, about the policy of its government and the achievements of Belgian industry and culture. Tsarigradski Vestnik, published in Istanbul in Bulgarian, for example, in 1852 had an article on the problems of the Belgian domestic policy.

The Bulgarian newspapers Pravo and Vek, also published in Istanbul, commented on their pages the relations between France and Belgium in the early and mid-1870s. Of particular interest are the publications about Belgium in the emigrants’ editions, written by activists of the Bulgarian national liberation movement, printed in Romania and hence remaining outside the scope of Ottoman censure. In its issue of October 21, 1870, Svoboda newspaper informed of serious warlike preparations of the Belgian government, which appointed a talented commander as minister of war and the popular General Rena as inspector of the National Guards. The newspaper editor denounced the attacks of the Prussian press on Belgium and expressed his indignation at the conduct of the Prussian ambassador in Brussels, who had instituted proceedings against Belgian newspapers. Svoboda quoted the Belgian press, protesting against the actions of the Prussian government in the person of its ambassador in Brussels, which would not allow the newspapers in an independent country “to think and write freely”. Another Bulgarian newspaper published in Romania, Zname in its issue of April 4, 1875, commented Bismarck’s recent note to Belgium, which expressed the discontent of the Prussian government with the Belgian press. Some European observers considered this note a serious threat to peace in Europe. As Zname underlined, the note to Belgium rather showed Bismarck’s desire not to be forgotten by European journalism, as he would be forgotten in time by the “history of the rational humankind”. But it also showed that “the European dictator thought naught” the freedom of the little states, which proved “weak before the crude force of despotic militarism”.

A month later the same newspaper Zname carried an extensive article about acute political fights in Belgium, where “public security” was threatened by two opposite elements – the clericals and the socialists. The campaigning of the two parties reached such strain as to alarm the government. The Belgian people and its friends were greatly afflicted by a terrorist act. In broad daylight an assailant shot three times at the popular Colonel Olivie. The tragic outcome was prevented by the intervention of the brother of the Belgian King, who drew his revolver in time and wounded the assaulter.

In June 1876 the Istanbul-published Bulgarian newspaper Iztochno Vreme also wrote about the interior political situation in Belgium. This time the topic was the hot struggle in the parliamentary elections and after them, when the Liberal Party, having lost its majority in Parliament, instigated rioting, which went on for days and took human life. The newspaper alluded to the French press, which condemned these sad acts of violence and ignoring of the laws of parliamentarism. The Belgian Liberals threatened they would continue with their protests until the King proposed an amendment of the electoral law. This overt pressure on the Belgian King, according to the editor of Iztochno Vreme, contradicted the basic principles of parliamentary rule. The article author, however, hoped that the freedom-loving Belgians would not yield before such violation of political morals. “The Belgians,” the article read in conclusion, “will do well to retain their government, which has made them one of the most free, prosperous and respectable nations in Europe.”

These words speak best of the idea of the Bulgarians prior to the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman domination about the Belgian people and Belgian state. Their evident sympathy for the people of Belgium is rooted in the similarity of ideals about the small nations’ right of independence, as well as freedom as a basic human right, something the Bulgarian people, deprived of any political freedom at the time, was very sensitive about. This idea about the Belgians and attitude towards Belgium the Bulgarians retained after the Liberation in 1878. Right after the signing and ratification by the Great powers of the Berlin Peace Treaty of 1878, the Belgian diplomat Camille Janssen was appointed interim consul general of Belgium in the Principality of Bulgaria with a seat in the new capital Sofia. After the adoption of the first Bulgarian Constitution by the Grand National Assembly in Tarnovo on August 5, 1879, the first Bulgarian government was formed and it undertook steps for establishing diplomatic relations with Belgium.