Interagency Council meeting on the participation of the Republic of Bulgaria in NATO and the Common Security and Defence Policy
19 September 2014 News
Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Mitov chaired today the second annual meeting of the Interagency Council on Bulgaria’s participation in NATO and the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). In the meeting, held at the MFA, participated the Defence Minister Velizar Shalamanov, representatives of the President’s Administration, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy and Energy, and the national intelligence services.
In his opening statement, Foreign Minister emphasized that scheduling a Council meeting shortly after the NATO Summit is an affirmation of the commitment and the importance we attach to specific topics on the agenda, mainly related to the decisions taken at the Summit.
Minister Mitov presented the implementation of the decisions taken at the previous meeting and related to the implementation of the package aims to abilities, participation of civil experts from Bulgaria in operations and missions of international organizations for crisis management outside the country, cyber security, CSDP issues. Foreign Minister briefed the Council on the implementation of the National Plan of initiatives to mark the 10th anniversary of Bulgaria's membership in NATO.
The Council members discussed the outcome of the NATO Summit in Wales and the implementation of the goals, and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense presented reports on the topic. Daniel Mitov described the adoption of the Readiness Action Plan to enhance preparedness and respond with fast, efficient and well-coordinated actions to new challenges as one of the most important results of the Summit. The strong commitment of the Allies to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty and the growing importance of the Black Sea region to Europe's security were reaffirmed, Foreign Minister said.
Minister Velizar Shalamanov presented the main tasks of the Ministry of Defence in accordance with the decisions of the NATO Summit. Among the priority tasks is to prepare by the end of the year a review of the implementation of the Strategy for Transformation of the Participation of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria in the Operation in Afghanistan and to develop a new strategy for the post-2014 participation. A plan to join NATO’s concept of "framework nations", led by Germany, is due to be developed.
Information on the outcome of the informal meeting of Defense Ministers, held on 9-10 September in Milan, was presented to the Council participants. Foreign Minister delivered a report on the progress on the deployment of EU’s CSDP mission in Ukraine and the Bulgarian contribution to it. We consider it a priority mission due to a number of factors such as the geographical proximity of Ukraine and the conflict to the EU and Bulgaria with the consequent risks, the shared European democratic values and principles, the commitments under Bulgaria's membership in the EU, the signing of the Association Agreement with Ukraine, and the large Bulgarian minority group in the country, he said.
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