Ilham Ahmed: Sudan Wants to Revive Ties with Bulgaria at All Levels

Novinite has met with Sudan's Ambassador to Bulgaria, H.E. Ilham Ahmed, whose country is marking 61 years of independence - but also the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Khartoum and Sofia.

Ms Ahmed, whose mission in Sofia started in September 2014, is also accredited to Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania.

She began her diplomatic career in January 1989 and since then has worked at all levels of Sudan's diplomatic service. Between 1998 and 2004, she was a senior diplomat in Sudan's permanent mission to the United Nations. From 2008 to 2011, she was Khartoum's Ambassador to Oslo, Norway.

Your Excellency, Bulgaria was one of the very first countries to recognize Sudan's independence back in 1956, but later closed its embassy in Khartoum, while Sudan opened one in Sofia in 2007. What was it that made your country take the step after a decade of relatively stalled relations?

First of all, thank you so much for this opportunity. Sudan became independent in 1956 and Bulgaria established relations in July 1956 of the same year - and then immediately took the positive initiative in Khartoum. At the time, as we were a newly independent country, it was difficult to open embassies in the spot. In the first period of our independence, we were represented from Moscow and later on from Bucharest in Romania. To answer your question, because bilateral relations have been going on very well, it was thought it would be very important to have a resident representation of Sudan in Bulgaria. That was why in 1999 the embassy was moved from Romania to Bulgaria. It was a General Consulate at the beginning, for different reasons, including economic ones. But a little before 2007, the government of...