PM Kyrakis Mitsotakis and his Bulgarian counterpart Kiril Petkov discussed on Monday bilateral cooperation in the energy sector with an emphasis on reducing their reliance on Russian gas.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is the first European leader to visit Bulgaria after the formation of the new government, was welcomed by prime minister Kiril Petkov and the country’s president, Rumen Radev.

“I had the pleasure to meet today with the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria, my new friend Kiril Petkov. It is a great pleasure for me to be the first visitor after the election of the new Bulgarian government. I found a new friend and we worked for the Bulgarian-Greek relations to be closer”, PM Mitsotakis said.

The leaders’ agenda included the speedy completion of a key gas inter-connector linking the neighboring countries.

The project is important for Bulgaria because it would mark the first break of a Russian monopoly on the Bulgarian gas market. The new pipeline will link to the pipeline, which transits Azerbaijani gas from Greece to Italy.

Bulgaria has already a deal with Azerbaijan to import annually one billion cubic meters of gas, or nearly one-third of its consumption.

Speaking about the European perspective of the countries of the Western Balkans, Mitsotakis said that Athens is in favor of a formal start of talks with Skopje and Tirana as soon as possible, subject to membership criteria.

The European Commission made repeated promises that the future of six countries in the region lies within the 27-nation bloc. But progress has stalled on admitting Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia amid divisions among member countries and some bilateral issues.

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