国际英语新闻：Russia, Bulgaria sign agreement on South Stream pipeline construction

SOFIA, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Bulgaria signed during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit here on Saturday an agreement on establishing a joint company aimed at building the South Stream pipeline route in Bulgaria.

"Signing of the today's agreement is another very important step for the realization of bilateral agreements," Putin told a joint press conference with his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borissov.

The agreement on South Stream between the two countries was signed in 2008.

Underlining the "crucial Pan-European importance" of South Stream, Putin said that Russia offers to sweep the pipeline from the Russian Black Sea coast to the Bulgarian coast, and to guarantee 100 percent rhythmic, stable gas supplies to Bulgaria and to southern Europe.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov (R) welcomes Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in front his office in Sofia, November 13, 2010. Putin arrived in Bulgaria for a one-day visit.

"Furthermore, Bulgaria is now receiving from Russia for the transit of small quantities of gas to other countries 600 million dollars or euro, do not remember exactly," Putin said. If they realize the South Stream project, Bulgaria would receive nearly 2. 5 billion U.S. dollars just because the tube goes through its territory, Putin said.

Putin said that construction of the future Belene nuclear power plant also was discussed during his visit to Sofia on Saturday. A Russian company won the bid to build the Belene nuclear power plant in 2006, but the project was frozen after Borissov's GERB party came to power in July 2009.

"Today we presented the final price for Belene, Bulgarian experts will do an expertise, evaluation, and will respond us," Putin said.

He said the two sides agreed to approve by the end of 2010 the technical design of the Belene NPP.

Borissov said that the experts will continue their work on Belene, in order to have "the cheapest and yet most reliable NPP in Europe, and why not in the world."

Other energy projects also were discussed, such as the "Gazprom Neft" readiness to do geological surveys of the continental shelf of the Black Sea near the border with Romania, Putin said.

He said also the trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Bulgaria is developing successfully. During the first nine months of 2010 the turnover increased by 50 percent. "Thus, for the nine months of this year we surpassed the performance of the crisis in 2009 and stepped into the stage of sustainable development," Putin said.

Later on, during his several hours' visit in Sofia, Putin also met with the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.