site.btaBulgaria Has Until March to Send Letter Naming Its Candidate for UN Secretary-General

Bulgaria Has Until March to Send Letter Naming Its Candidate for UN Secretary-General

Brussels, January 18 (BTA Correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - Bulgaria has until March to sent a letter naming its candidate for UN Secretary-General, Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov said in reply to a question here Monday. He was in Brussels to participate in the first regular meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council for 2016.

"A letter with the Bulgarian nomination will be sent at the first moment when we assess that it is most appropriate and that it will be the good moment for the Bulgarian nomination's success, whoever the candidate is. I should assure you that the Foreign Ministry will invest all of its efforts, resources and potential into the protection of the Bulgarian candidate for UN Secretary-General, regardless of who this nominee is," Mitov said.

He noted that sending such a letter goes beyond the Foreign Ministry's technical powers and that other important institutions should express their opinion on the matter. "Announcing a nomination early on can very often turn into a cause for and create conditions for attacks against the Bulgarian candidate. There also are tactical considerations here," Mitov said.

Asked to comment on the topics discussed at the EU Council meeting, he said that the most important matter is to achieve a political solution to the conflict in Syria. "Everyone is optimistic about the start of the political process in Vienna, this format promises that the outlined steps will be carried out," he noted. He expects that at the end of the negotiation process there will be clarity on the achievement of a truce between the regime and the opposition in Syria, as well as joint actions with the international coalition against Islamic State. The process should end with elections under the UN's supervision and the Syrian people determining the future of their country, Mitov added.

He also told journalists that the EU should undertake far harsher measures when it comes to the influx of people crossing its borders. "We have been insisting for a long time on a stricter control over EU's external borders. We should not allow the won freedom of movement to be threatened by temporary phenomena, such as migration flows. The return of the economic immigrants should become a European policy," Mitov said.