Bulgaria opens its consulate in Frankfurt

Bulgaria opens new consulate in Germany, which will be located in Frankfurt am Main. This information was reported by the Bulgarian media on Tuesday citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country.

It should be noted that the consulate will be new only for its location. In fact, Bulgarian diplomatic mission, which was previously located in Bonn, will simply move to Frankfurt. Bulgarian consulate in Bonn will be closed down on 30 June 2012.

Opening of the consulate in one of the major financial centers in Europe will allow Bulgaria to provide for a full range of diplomatic support business representatives, as well as actively work on strengthening the German-Bulgarian partnership in trade and business.

The consulate will also provide support for the Bulgarian citizens residing or temporarily staying in Germany in such lands as North Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Hesse and Bremen.

Bulgarian consulate in Frankfurt will be opened under the government strategy on optimizing the country's foreign diplomatic missions, which was developed in 2011. Opening of new Bulgarian diplomatic missions should ensure the country representation in the world's leading cities, as well as help to strengthen the tourist image of Bulgaria abroad.

Russia also remains among the prior Bulgarian partners. The number of Russian tourists, who visited Bulgaria in 2011, increased by 20%. Today in many Russian cities there is an opportunity to get Bulgarian visa quite fast. For example, in Moscow in 2011 was opened the second Bulgarian visa application center. Visa centers are also located in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk, Kazan and Samara. In 2011 these centers issued by almost 50% more visas than in 2010.