In a landmark celebration marking Bulgaria’s National Day of Liberation, Ambassador Deyan Katratchev announced that 2026 stands as an auspicious centennial for Bulgaria-Egypt relations. The event, which honored the sacrifices of the Bulgarian National Revival and the birth of the modern state, served as a high-profile reflection on a century of formal diplomacy and a millennium of shared history.
Ambassador Katratchev’s remarks came during the reception held by the Bulgarian Embassy in Cairo, highlighting that Egypt’s strategic importance led Bulgaria to choose it as the first Arab nation for official ties, beginning with a Consulate General in Alexandria in 1911. Despite the interruptions of two World Wars, formal diplomatic relations were established on February 3, 1926.
“What makes our relations distinctive is their resilience,” the Ambassador noted, emphasizing that the bond has endured even when the two nations found themselves on opposing sides of global conflicts, said Katratchev.
The modern partnership has reached record-breaking heights, with trade turnover hitting $1.81 billion in 2024. This confirms Egypt as Bulgaria’s top trade partner in the Middle East and Africa, while Bulgaria now stands as Egypt’s eighth-largest partner within the European Union. Key pillars of this cooperation include food security, increased Bulgarian wheat exports via secure Black Sea routes, infrastructure, strategic contributions by Bulgarian engineers to Egyptian national projects, academic excellence through over 50 years of Arabic studies at Sofia University, and a continuous Bulgarian archaeological mission in Luxor since 2012.
Ambassador Katratchev also praised Egypt’s “indispensable role” in mediating the crisis in Gaza and thanked Egyptian authorities for their vital assistance in securing the release of hostages and the evacuation of Bulgarian citizens. “Peace must be just, lasting, and credible,” Katratchev stated, reaffirming Bulgaria’s solidarity with regional partners against unprovoked attacks that threaten the global order.
Ambassador Katratchev expressed Bulgaria’s firm stance on regional security. As a committed NATO and EU member—celebrating recent milestones such as joining Schengen in 2025 and becoming the 21st Eurozone member this year—Bulgaria continues to advocate for a just peace in Ukraine grounded in international law.
This cultural synergy was recently mirrored in February’s collaborative concerts featuring “The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices” alongside the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Choir, illustrating a vibrant artistic exchange that has persisted since Maestro Ivan Filev helped revive the Cairo Opera Orchestra in the 1990s.
The celebration was underscored by a deep sense of “people-to-people” connection. The Cairo Celebration Choir performed the Bulgarian revolutionary song “Hubava si, moya goro” (“How Beautiful You Are, My Forest”). The song’s author, Lyuben Karavelov, had direct ties to the “Bulgarian Egyptians” — the 19th-century merchants known as Masarlii who settled in Khan al-Khalili and Alexandria to supply the Suez Canal project and the Egyptian army.
As the evening concluded, the Ambassador expressed hope that this centennial year would inspire future generations to carry forward a friendship that, while officially a century old, has been centuries in the making.
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