Brexit: British ambassador, Bulgarian PM discuss co-operation of special services
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and British ambassador in Sofia Emma Hopkins discussed co-operation between the two countries, including after Brexit.
At the May 2 meeting with heads of Bulgaria’s special services, attended by Interior Minister Valentin Radev, Borissov outlined how his country is guarding the Bulgarian-Turkish border and acting against cigarette smuggling and contraband operations.
The meeting followed a bust in Ireland of an illegal cigarette factory which had deprived Britain’s coffers of hundreds of millions of pounds in revenue.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Hopkins said that over the past year, there had been a number of joint operations by the UK and Bulgarian special services against the trafficking of cigarettes and contraband.
As a result of these operations, several million pounds had been saved for the UK.
She said that she trusted that the good co-operation between the services would continue after Brexit.
Hopkins and Radev noted the good co-operation between the two countries’ special services, which had been going on for years and which would continue after the UK leaves the EU.
Radev said that his ministry would hold meetings with all EU ambassadors to Bulgaria, to brief them on Bulgaria’s guarding of the border with Turkey and its combating of illegal trafficking of people and contraband, as well as preparations for the 2018 summer holiday season at Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.