Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria Rosen Dimitrov Jeliazkov is welcomed at the airport by NA Vice Chairman Nguyen Duc Hai (Photo: VNA)

This is the first visit by a high-ranking Bulgarian leader to Vietnam 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 Vuong Dinh Hue in September last year.

The visit will contribute to strengthening and nurturing the 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, labor, and locality-to-locality cooperation.