The History of Bulgaria's Diplomatic Relations is a documentary research of the development of Bulgarian diplomatic relations historically, as well as of the institutions, formulating and implementing the foreign policy and the international relations of the country.

The study contains an overview of the diplomatic practices of the two medieval Bulgarian Kingdoms, the National Revival period and a thorough research on the dynamics of modern Bulgaria's diplomatic relations since the Liberation in 1878 to these days, as well as on the membership of this country in major world organizations.

This enormous work is an achievement of officer of long-standing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs Maria Mateeva and of Mr Peter Konstantinov, managing editor and co-compiler of the volume, also an employee at the Foreign Ministry.

Maria Mateeva (1914–2004) graduated in philology and history at Sofia University. Post-graduation as a Humboldt grant-holder in Munich, Germany. For more than three decades she has been in the diplomatic service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under ministers Sava Kirov, Dimiter Shishmanov, Ivan Bagrianov, Parvan Draganov and Konstantin Muraviev, and later under the ministers Petko Stainov, Vasil Kolarov, Vladimir Poptomov, Mincho Neichev, Karlo Lukanov and Ivan Bashev. At the request and with the support of Minister Ivan Bashev she started a documentary research on the diplomatic and consular relations of Bulgaria.

After her retirement, she contributed to the Committee on European Security and Cooperation and the Institute for Foreign Policy. Hers are the study Diplomatic Relations of Bulgaria since the Liberation until 1974 (1976, 1988), the reference book Consular Relations of Bulgaria 1879–1986 (1989) and Developments in Eastern and Central Europe – Chronological Review 1985–1997 (1997).

From 1969 to 1991 he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in Bulgaria's missions in Southeastern Asia and Africa. Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Benin (1987-1991). In 1989 he headed a delegation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the independence elections in Namibia, held under UN aegis.

Chairperson of Bulgaria-Africa Association.

Author of numerous publications among which works on different social and economic aspects of the countries in Africa and Asia, the Non-Aligned Movement. Reviewer of the History of Black Africa by Henri Moniot and Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch and other books dedicated to the problems of developing countries.

Editor in charge of the documentary study History of Bulgaria's Diplomatic Relations by Maria Mateeva.

Fluent in English, Russian, Indonesian and German.