Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev begins Thursday his official three day visit to the Republic of Moldova at the invitation of the Moldavian PM Vasile Tarlev.

This is the first visit of Bulgarian Prime Minister in Moldova after it declared independence in 1990.

On Thursday Stanishev will have a private meeting with PM Vasile Tarlev who is himself an ethnic Bulgarian from the Bessarabian Bulgarian community in Moldova which numbers some 90,000 according to official data.

The visit will continue with a plenary session of the Bulgarian delegation with its Moldavian counterparts. The Stanishev-led delegation includes several deputy-ministers from the ministries of education, foreign affairs, economy and energy.

Stanishev is going to sign a bi-lateral agreement for mutual defense and exchange of classified information. He is going to have meetings with Moldavian President Vladimir Voronin and Chair of Parliament Marian Lupu on Friday.

As part of the official visit, Bulgaria will provide 2500 parotitis (mumps) vaccines worth BGN 50 000 in response to Moldova's request because of the epidemics there.

The Bulgarian PM is also going to have meetings with members of the Bulgarian community in Moldova.

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