H.E. Mr. Dragovest Goranov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Republic of Bulgaria to India

Dragovest Goranov was born in Sofia in 1952. He is a graduate of the Moscow State University in International Relations and South Asia. He started his career as a probation-attache and attache at the Asian Countries Department of the Foreign Ministry. Then he was second secretary at the Asian Countries Dept., expert in Europe and Northern America Directorate, director at Asia, Australia and Oceania Directorate. In the period 1998-2001 he was councilor at the Bulgarian embassy in London. Since 2003 he is Ambassador of Republic of Bulgaria to India.

Mr. Goranov is married and has two children.

Your Excellency, you say that your ambition is to invigorate the relations between Bulgaria and India. How do you assess their development so far?
I would proudly like to say that on December 22, 2004, was the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and India. This golden jubilee was marked becomingly in both countries by a number of political and cultural events throughout the year.

The past half a century is characterized by active contacts and friendly cooperation at all levels and in diverse lines. The official relations have always been friendly, without disputed or open issues, both in the sphere of bilateral and international politics. Dozens of visits at high and top level have been exchanged, as a result of which a stable and extensive normative-legal base has been built, which serves as basis for active and broad bilateral links and contacts in all spheres of mutual interest.

The geographic remoteness and great difference in the size of the population have never been an obstacle to the sincere friendship and mutual interest in the cultural and historical heritage and traditions of Bulgaria and India.

In the 1990s there was an understandable standstill in our bilateral relations. Bulgaria was experiencing a hard and complicated process of internal political changes and foreign priorities. Our efforts were concentrated on the successful integration of our country in the Euro-Atlantic structures. Now that Bulgaria has a stable market economy, when it is a worthy member of NATO and within months of its full membership in the European Union, with renewed strength and offering many new possibilities we turn to our traditionally friendly countries in Asia, leading among which is India.

The intensification of bilateral political dialogue is already a fact. In July 2003 an Indian parliamentary delegation, headed by Mrs. Sushma Svaraj, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs of India, visited Bulgaria. In October the same year the Indian President Dr. Abdul Kalam was on a state visit here. In February 2004 the Minister of Privatization, Communications and Information Technologies Dr. Arun Shouri visited Bulgaria. In July the Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Solomon Passy paid an official visit to New Delhi. Only three months ago the regular 15th session of the Bulgarian-Indian Mixed Committee for Economic and Techno-Scientific Cooperation and the 13th session of the Bulgarian-Indian Business Council were held in New Delhi. These are some of the main accents and events in the bilateral political dialogue, to which must be added the active and diverse longstanding cooperation in the sphere of science, education and culture on the basis of regularly renewed three-year programs and in accordance with the resolutions of the annual meetings of the Mixed Committee for Economic and Techno-Scientific Cooperation.

Besides the mentioned spheres, we must note the fruitful trade and economic relations. For Bulgaria India is a traditional and leading trade partner among the countries of South Asia. Unfortunately, at this stage the commodity exchange does not come up to the potential of the two countries, but we can note with satisfaction that while in 2003 it was about 32 million dollars, for the first ten months of 2004 only it approximated 48 million. Alongside our work on increasing the volume of trade, our efforts are directed at overcoming the strongly negative balance for Bulgaria. Practically there are no Indian investments in Bulgaria. With the active cooperation and direct contacts between the chambers of commerce of the two countries and the fruitful activity of the Mixed Business Council we hope the present difficulties will be overcome very soon. In 2004 through these organizations two groups of Bulgarian businessmen from different branches visited India and one group of Indian textile businessmen came to Bulgaria.