Foreign
A parliamentarian in the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr Vladislav Panev, has assured of his country’s commitment to Ukrain’s territorial integrity.
The parliamentarian said this while featuring on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum, which was held in the Agency’s Headquarters in Abuja.
Panev said that his country’s government would continue to support Ukraine until the end of the war with Russia.
“We are welcoming Ukrainians who live in Bulgaria.
“We have a great shortage of labour force; our labour market wants more and more workers.
“I told you in the beginning that many Bulgarian people moved to Western Europe, so we are welcoming the Ukrainian workforce and Ukrainian people, so it’s not a crisis for us,’’ he said
Speaking on the Russia- Ukraine war, Panev described the situation as horrible.
“Firstly, I must say it is a horrible situation, horrible war, and horrible invasion of Russia into Ukraine.
“We are committed to Ukraine’s integrity, territorial integrity and we will help Ukraine till the end of this war.
“I hope it will happen soon and it will end with Ukraine keeping its territorial integrity.
“At the beginning of the war, Bulgaria imported 100 per cent of its natural gas from Russia.
“It imported 60 per cent of its oil from Russia. Now from March 1 this year, these percentages are zero, both for natural gas and for oil. So we made our transition even though it was not easy,” he said.
According to him, the prices of natural gas went up several times in 2022, but now had stabilised back to their normal levels.
Panev attributed this to the ability of his country’s government to manage and diversify its portfolio of imports of oil and gas.
“We are trying to import nuclear power, nuclear uranium from other markets, not from Russia.
“So we are diversifying our economy further from the Russian economy,’’ he said.
Panev, who is also the Chairman of the Bulgaria-Nigeria Parliamentary Friendship Group, said that five parliamentarians from Bulgaria were on a 5-day visit to Nigeria on the invitation of the Nigerian National Assembly.
He said that two years ago Bulgaria was dependent on Russia for energy, but currently were independent as a result of the war.
“I do not have the exact places where we import our gas from, but we will be happy to import from Nigeria as well, since most of our import of natural gas is now from liquid gas.
“I know that there were plans for a pipeline from Nigeria through Niger and Algeria to the mediterranean sea.
“Probably these plans are for the future, maybe they will happen in 10 or 15 years’ time, also it will be both beneficial for Nigeria itself and to Europe.(NAN)
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-March 03, 2024 @ 17:21 GMT|
Tags: Mr Vladislav Panev
