Politburo member and Secretary of the Ha Noi Party Committee Hoang Trung Hai, Bulgarian Ambassador to Viet Nam Evgueni Stoychev and delegates cut the ribbon to open the Bulgarian Rose Festival at Ha Noi’s Thong Nhat (Reunification) Park on March 3.
Visitors at the Bulgarian Rose Festival (Photo: vov.vn)
The six-day event is being jointly held by the Bulgarian Embassy in Ha Noi and the Viet Nam-Bulgaria Friendship Association in celebration of 67 years of friendly relations between the two countries, 139 years of Bulgaria’s National Day (March 3, 1878-2017) and the International Women’s Day (March 8).
On its debut in Viet Nam, the festival brings together 300 types of roes from across the world, including purebred rose varieties of both Europe and Bulgaria.
It also features pavilions showcasing Bulgaria’s traditional products, including rose-themed food, unique souvenirs and products from rose oil.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Vice Chairman of the Ha Noi People’s Committee Nguyen Doan Toan affirmed that Viet Nam and Bulgaria have had positive sentiments for each other over the years, adding that bilateral ties have been increasingly strengthened through political, diplomatic and economic cooperation activities.
The Bulgarian rose festival is a milestone marking the good relationship between the two countries and a bridge fostering cultural cohesion and cooperation between Viet Nam and Bulgaria as a whole and between Ha Noi and Kazanlak in particular, he said.
Through the festival, the Bulgarian Embassy presented Ha Noi with the Damascena rose variety, Bulgaria’s most precious and typical rose.
On behalf of Ha Noi’s leaders and citizens, Toan thanked the Bulgarian side and pledged to direct specialised agencies to receive, preserve, breed and conduct the pilot cultivation of this kind of rose, contributing to deepening the solidarity and friendship between the two nations and two cities.