site.btaForeign Minister Mitov: Bulgaria Faces New Geopolitical Challenges

Foreign Minister Mitov: Bulgaria
Faces New
Geopolitical Challenges


Sofia, October 1 (BTA) - Bulgaria is faced with new geopolitical
challenges, said Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov here on
Wednesday. He opened a round table discussion on the prospects,
risks and challenges for Bulgarian foreign policy, organized by
the Institute for Right-wing Policies and the Konrad Adenauer
Club.

"We are witnessing crises, which surround us and put us again
and again in a situation, where we have to re-affirm our
European and Transatlantic choice and belonging. We see what is
happening in Ukraine, what is happening in the Middle East,"
Mitov commented. He noted that the Islamic State is a huge
threat to Bulgaria's national security, as well as the security
of its partners in the EU and the Transatlantic Community.
Politically, Bulgaria is part of this community's efforts to
deal with the threat, the Foreign Minister said. It is nice that
in the past weeks it emerged that the Transatlantic Community
has a clear and precise commitment regarding the fight against
the Islamic State, Mitov added.

In such a situation, Bulgaria needs a strong foreign policy,
national consensus and clearly defined priorities, which are not
dependent on the changes of governments, Mitov said.

The Minister voiced hope that very soon there will be an
opportunity for a legislative initiative, which would
criminalize the participation of Bulgarian citizens on the
Islamic State's side.

He said that the protective fence along the Bulgarian-Turkish
border will not be removed. "The fact that we have said that it
is temporary, does not mean that we are starting to remove the
fence," Mitov commented media publications on the topic. He
recalled that the previous interior minister Tzvetlin Yovchev
had officially said that the facility is temporary and that even
the Council of Ministers' decision to build it states that the
fence is being constructed with a specific purpose and because
of specific circumstances.

Political scientist Ognyan Minchev commented that in the system
of international relations has changed significantly over the
past years - an evolution from a liberal system of delineated
values towards a multipolar system of power and influence.
Within such a system, smaller countries in particular are given
the more difficult task to balance, Minchev commented, adding
that Bulgaria must balance its foreign policy between three main
centres of power - the Washington-Brussels axis, Moscow and
Ankara.

Former foreign minister and President of the Bulgarian Atlantic
Club Solomon Passy said that it is very difficult to have a
Right- or Left-wing policy in the fields of foreign policy and
defence. One can talk of a pro-East or pro-West policy, but in
no way can this be identified with a Right- or Left-wing policy,
he commented. "Lets focus on consensual policy making, which
can be transferred from one government to the next and upgraded.
It seems as if Bulgaria lost the direction of its foreign
policy on January 1, 2007," Passy said, adding that until then
the priorities were clear - NATO and EU membership. He said that
within NATO, Bulgaria could specialize in the fields of
aviation, military medicine, among others. "We can't have a
universal soldier, we must be good at a few things," he said.
According to him, Bulgaria could specialize in specific policies
in countries with which it has had good relations before 1989,
such as South Africa, Vietnam, North Korea. "This is a
completely forgotten niche, while we are trying to solve
problems of cosmic proportions that do not correspond to our
size. We must define our theoretical potential and get the most
out of it," he commented. Passy further said that Bulgaria could
become one of the initiators of a "Visegrad Group" on the
Balkans, which could include the five countries which are also
NATO and EU members.

The former foreign minister also noted that outside its NATO and
EU relations, Bulgaria lacks priorities regarding the USA,
which he described as this country's biggest military ally. This
partnership with the US is not being materialized and it should
have an adequate strategic dimension, Passy noted.

Political scientist Vladimir Shopov noted that there is a
sustainable marginalization of Bulgaria within the EU. Another
worrying tendency, in his words, is that over the past few years
there has been a systematic strategy for the de-Europization of
Bulgaria, which is trying, with variable success, to break the
European consensus in this country. The third process is related
to the inertia and formalization of Bulgaria's EU membership,
Shopov added. PK/MY