On September 25, 2025, at this important historical moment of the tenth anniversary of the signing of the intergovernmental cooperation document on the the Belt and Road between China and Bulgaria, the China Bulgaria Local Cooperation Conference was grandly held in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, and achieved complete success. This conference is co hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Chinese Embassy in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian the Belt and Road National Federation and the Bulgarian Cities Alliance, aiming to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind through practical cooperation among cities.

The conference brought together government officials from 12 provinces and cities in China and over 40 cities in Bulgaria, as well as outstanding representatives from the fields of economy, trade, education, culture, and more. A total of more than 130 people gathered together to discuss cooperation plans. At the city salon session after the opening ceremony, representatives from both sides had in-depth experience sharing and constructive dialogue on key topics such as infrastructure connectivity, water treatment technology, smart city construction, development of health tourism industry, green and low-carbon transformation, and cultural education exchange, jointly exploring the broad space and specific path of future cooperation.

During the meeting, based on sufficient communication in the early stage, both parties successfully signed multiple friendly cooperation agreements between cities, transforming their willingness to cooperate into formal documents. In addition, the conference also carefully organized a series of counterpart talks between Chinese provinces and cities and Bulgarian cities, where both sides had productive face-to-face consultations on specific cooperation projects of mutual concern, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent substantive cooperation. The successful holding of this conference marks that the local cooperation between China and Bulgaria under the framework of jointly building the the Belt and Road has reached a new level, showing strong development vitality and broad prospects. Editor/Yang Beihua