Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, who was on a visit to Israel this week, held talks with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on various issues including potential cooperation in the energy sector, especially on gas transport, as Borissov said hat he saw great potential in gas fields in Israel.

“There is a huge future in this area,” Borissov told a joint press conference in Jerusalem.

Borissov and Netanyahu, at their talks, agreed that in the past few years, Bulgarian-Israeli relations have made significant progress in the traditional spirit of mutual trust, friendship, co-operation and partnership, and gained an important strategic dimension, a Bulgarian government statement said.

Netanyahu said that it was a pleasure to welcome “my good friend” Boiko Borissov to Jerusalem, saying that their personal friendship was extremely close “and that between our nations goes back centuries, acknowledging in particular the "heroic stance" of the Bulgarian citizens' role in saving Jews during the Holocaust.

“We enjoy an advantage in this friendship, because Jews have made an extraordinary contribution to Bulgaria and, respectively, Bulgarian Jews have their own major contribution to our country’s development. I believe that we will be working for both countries’ prosperity on the basis of this personal friendship and this bridge built between the two countries,” he said.

Borissov is perceived as a friend who often comes to Israel’s support inside the European Union. “On the settlement labeling issue Bulgaria was a positive force,” an Israeli official said, noting that the two countries have “a very good relationship.”

Bulgaria is one of the EU countries that – when there is a split among the 28 EU countries regarding an Israel-related vote in the UN – can be counted on to either vote for Israel, or at least abstain.

Bulgaria and Israel have cooperated closely after the July 2012 terrorist attack at Burgas Airport in which five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian died in the blast that has been linked to Hezbollah.

"We know that this (terror attack in Burgas) is a single instance of the larger plague that attacks our countries in the Middle East and the world," Netanyahu said.

"Israel and Bulgaria stand on the same side in the battle against militant Islamist terrorism and extremism. This is a battle not only for the future of our countries, but for the future of our common values and our common civilization."