Syria will pay 24 per cent of its $75 million foreign debt to Bulgaria within 30 days, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said in Damascus on April 25 2010, Bulgarian media reported.
 
According to Borissov, this meant that his country would get the highest proportion of payment among all countries to which Damascus is in debt.
 
The deal means that about $54 million of Syria’s debt to Bulgaria, which has accumulated over the past three decades, will be written off.
 
At a meeting on April 25 of the Syrian-Bulgarian Business Council in Damascus, Syrian finance minister Mohammed al-Hussein said that the Syrian-Bulgarian relations always had been very special, and said that he hoped that Borissov’s visit to Syria would consolidate economic co-operation between the two countries, Bulgarian news agency Focus said, quoting a local agency.
 
Al-Hussein said that many important projects have been carried out by Bulgarian companies in Syria.
 
He said that Syria was eager to build close relations with Bulgaria to open the door for joint projects and investments and exchanges of visits in the best interest of both countries.
 
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov, meeting his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem, said that Bulgaria would support Syria in its efforts to sign an association agreement with the European Union, a statement said.
 
Mladenov met members of the Bulgarian community in Damascus, Bulgarian National Radio reported.
 
"I spent several of my childhood years in Damascus and this is a very emotional reunion for me," Mladenov said, addressing a group of more than 60 Bulgarians who gathered at the Bulgarian Cultural Centre in Damascu.
 
The Bulgarian cabinet thinks that we should not forget that there is also another world outside the EU, Russia and the US, Mladenov was quoted as saying.