Bulgaria reconfirmed its NATO commitments Bulgaria_Online - 2005/11/19
At my meetings with Prime-minister Sergei Stanishev, the Minister of Defense and the President the NATO commitments of Bulgaria were reconfirmed and this is very encouraging, Gen. James Jones, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces of NATO and the US in Europe, said on Saturday in Sofia.
In a speech at the Third Annual Security Conference : Security Risks and Transformation - Euro-Atlantic and Regional Perspectives, organized by the Center for the Study of Democracy, Gen. Jones said that NATO is under transformation from reactive to proactive engagements. To guarantee the collective security in the face of the new threats of 21st century NATO forces will be employed and deployed in different parts of the world so as to prevent terrorist and non-state actors from acquiring modern military technologies. But to accomplish the transformation the member countries need to maintain a necessary budget, Gen. Jones said.
Ministers, diplomats, representatives of General Staffs and of strategic think-tanks from 20 countries participate at the two-day international forum.
Bulgaria’s Prime minister Sergei Stanishev addressed the conference. He pointed out that the position of Bulgaria is that NATO and the EU should continue the integration process to include the countries of the Western Balkans. Thus the two organizations will strengthen their stabilizing role in the region, Sergei Stanishev said.