Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev on Monday awarded Stara Planina orders to the ambassadors of four countries, his press office has said.

The awards were handed out to stress the diplomats' contribution to the development of bilateral relations.

The four ambassadors, France's Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes, Hungary's Andr?s Klein, Japan's Takashi Koizumi, and Belgium's Anick Van Calster, are to depart from Bulgaria as their terms of office are expiring.

Of them, the first three have links to Bulgaria. Mr De Cabanes, who also had a diplomatic assignment to Sofia back in the 1990s, is married to a Bulgarian wife. Mr Koizumi, who has spent 12 years as an ambassador here, studied in Sofia in the 1970s. For Mr Klein, Bulgaria is the homeland of his mother.

Stara Planina, or the Order of the Balkan Mountains, is handed out to state leaders, ministers, diplomats and civil servants and foreign nationals who have contributed to the establishment or strengthening of bilateral relations between Bulgaria and their respective countries.