Victoria Nuland, the US Assistant State Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, will visit Bulgaria on Monday.

Talks have been scheduled between Nuland and Bulgarian government representatives, in which bilateral cooperation in the fields of energy and economy is to be discussed, Bulgarian TV channel bTV has reported.

Cooperation between Sofia and Washington in NATO is also expected to be on the agenda.

Nuland's visit comes in a week when Bulgaria is to mark the 10th anniversary of joining NATO, with an international conference due to be held in Sofia on April 3-4.

It also coincides with heightened tensions among NATO representatives over Russian troops' buildup near Ukraine's borders.

Prior to Bulgaria, the US Secretary's aide was in Moldova, the crisis in Ukraine and in Moldova's region of Transnistria were the focus of talks with officials.

Nuland is to later join US Secretary of State John Kerry in Brussels, where a meeting of NATO members will be held on Tuesday, April 1.

Back in February, Victoria Nuland sparked outrage among European officials with leaked phone remarks on the EU made in a conversation with US ambassador to Ukraine.

The authenticity of the wiretapped comments was later confirmed.

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