Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria Rosen Dimitrov Jeliazkov is welcomed at the airport by NA Vice Chairman Nguyễn Đức Hải. VNA photo

HÀ NỘI - Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria Rosen Dimitrov Jeliazkov and his entourage arrived in Hà Nội on January 5 evening, beginning an official visit to Việt Nam from January 5-9 at the invitation of National Assembly Chairman Vương Đình Huệ.

They were welcomed at the airport by NA Vice Chairman Nguyễn Đức Hải, Head of the NA Committee for External Relations Vũ Hải Hà, and Deputy Head of the NA Committee for Legal Affairs Ngô Trung Thành, Bulgarian Ambassador to Việt Nam Pavlin Todorov, and Vietnamese Ambassador to Bulgaria Đỗ Hoàng Long.

This is the first visit by a high-ranking Bulgarian leader to iệt Nam over a decade, following Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev's visit in October 2013. Particularly, it is a reciprocal visit following the official Bulgaria visit by Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Vương Đình Huệ in September last year.

The Việt Nam visit will contribute to strengthening and nurturing the already robust political relations between the two countries through the Party, State, Government and people-to-people channels. It will present an opportunity for both sides to engage in discussions on global and regional issues of shared concern, intensify substantial and effective bilateral ties, particularly in areas of their strengths such as trade-investment, education, health care, culture, tourism, labour, and locality-to-locality cooperation. VNA/VNS