The Indian business community is increasingly attracted towards Bulgaria as a trade partner

H.E. Mr. Dinkar Khullar, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India

H.E. Mr. Dinkar Khullar is Ambassador in Sofia since February 2003. Career diplomat. Command of Russian and Italian. Married, has one son. The first interview of Ambassador Khullar for Bulgarian Diplomatic Review magazine is published in issue 10-11/2003.

Your Excellency, Bulgaria and India are countries with ancient cultural traditions. What are the perspectives for development of the cultural cooperation between us in today\'s world of dynamic information exchange?
The ancient cultural traditions of Bulgaria and India are the foundation of our long-standing cultural cooperation. A wide range of cultural contacts and exchanges have established and prospered in the fields of language, literature and the fine arts. In today’s globalized era, with scope for virtually instant information exchange, the prospects for cultural interaction are limitless. The information revolution has completely removed the obstacles of geographical distance. I would expect that this will enable increased people-to-people contact in diverse fields of art, music and dance in addition to the spread of knowledge about each other\'s history and cultural traditions amongst all cross-sections of the population of the two countries.

Are the Indian business circles interested to invest in contemporary Bulgaria?
The Indian business community is increasingly attracted towards Bulgaria as a trade partner and an investment destination. Recent discussions between business representatives in New Delhi have identified a number of areas which offer bright opportunities including pharmaceuticals, food processing, information technology, agricultural machinery, etc. There is existing active participation by a leading Indian company in the metallurgical sector in Bulgaria. Indian industry has built up extensive business interests in the existing EU and Bulgaria’s membership from 2007 will surely afford more such productive opportunities.

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and India. What is your opinion on these relations?
Bulgaria and India celebrated the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations in December, 2004. Our two countries have always enjoyed excellent bilateral relations in all spheres. The fifty years since 1954 saw many changes in the world. Despite the fact that some of these changes involved dramatic transformation in political and economic systems, the continuing strength of our friendship is a reflection of the resilient character of our relations based on the strong edifice of long-standing ties between our Governments and our peoples. I am confident that in the coming years, these ties will widen and flourish in the mutual interests of the two countries. I expect that in the next decade, we will witness development of cooperation in altogether new areas which, in turn, will benefit India, Bulgaria and the world in general.

What would you wish the readers of "Bulgarian Diplomatic Review" magazine for the new 200 5 year?
I would like to take this occasion at the beginning of the new year to convey my best wishes to the readers of the Bulgarian Diplomatic Review as also to the editors and publishers of this interesting and popular magazine. I wish all of you happiness, health and prosperity in 2005.

Juliana Tomova