Relationship dossier
Bulgaria
People's Republic of China
Relationship assessment
Bulgaria and China maintain a strategic partnership and participate in regional cooperation, with the scale of practical collaboration unclear.
Bulgaria toward People's Republic of China
+20Bulgaria participates in the China–Central and Eastern European Countries framework and hosted its 2018 summit in Sofia. In 2019, Bulgaria and China upgraded their relationship to a strategic partnership.
People's Republic of China toward Bulgaria
+20China participated in the China–Central and Eastern European Countries framework, including the 2018 Sofia summit, and joined Bulgaria in upgrading bilateral ties to a strategic partnership in 2019.
Overall relationship
+20The relationship has a framework for sustained political and economic engagement through the strategic partnership and the China–Central and Eastern European Countries process. These are concrete forms of cooperation, but the scale and implementation of bilateral projects are not clear enough to characterize the partnership as close.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Bulgaria and China have maintained substantive diplomatic engagement, including Bulgaria's participation in the China–Central and Eastern European Countries framework and its hosting of the framework's 2018 summit. The two governments upgraded ties to a strategic partnership in 2019. These arrangements indicate moderate cooperation, although the scale and implementation of economic projects and the breadth of cooperation are unclear.
Key developments
Bulgaria hosted the China–Central and Eastern European Countries summit in Sofia.
Bulgaria and China upgraded bilateral ties to a strategic partnership.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and implementation of bilateral economic and infrastructure cooperation are unclear.
- The extent of practical cooperation under the strategic partnership is uncertain.