Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Monday welcomed Russia's potential involvement in the revival of the Belene nuclear power plant project on the Danube River, local media reported.
Radev's remarks came after a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow in his first visit to the country as president.
The Bulgarian government decided last week to seek parliamentary approval to lift a ban on the development of the 2,000-megawatt plant project, which was abandoned in 2012 after failing to attract investors.
Noting that discussions on the Belene project resumed in Bulgaria, the president said Russia would be kept posted on the developments as 'the resuscitation of the project implies Russian participation,' Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) said.
Radev said Russia had always been a 'strategic energy partner' to Bulgaria as a supplier of natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel and as a participant in the maintenance and upgrading of energy facilities, BTA said.
Russian state company Atomstroyexport had been granted a contract to construct the Belene nuclear power plant back in 2008.
The president said, during the meeting with Medmedev, the two also discussed the possibility of direct gas supply from Russia via the Black Sea, calling on the respective governments of both countries to reconsider this prospect.
In December 2014, Russia cancelled the South Stream gas pipeline project, which would transport Russian natural gas to Bulgaria under the Black Sea, citing pressure from the EU during the Ukraine crisis.
In an interview with Russian daily Kommersant published on Monday, Radev went into more detail on the issue, saying Bulgaria needed direct gas deliveries through the Black Sea, and such a pipeline would be no different from the proposed Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea, the Sofia Globe said.
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr