site.bta20th Anniversary of NATO' Enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe, Including Bulgaria, Marked at Conference in Madrid

An international conference mottoed "Strength in Unity: 20th Anniversary of NATO's Enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe" was held in Madrid on Wednesday, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

The event was organized by the embassies of the six countries that joined the Alliance in 2004: Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and Slovenia, and was hosted by the International Issues and Foreign Policy Institute (INCPE).

At the first part of the conference, on the present challenges facing the 75-year-old NATO, the panelist was the Director General for Political Affairs at the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, Gergana Karadjova. She noted the significance of the enlargement of the Alliance 20 years ago and stressed the importance of security in the Black Sea region as a priority for Bulgaria. "No other region in NATO and the EU is affected to such a degree by Russia's military aggression against Ukraine," she emphasized, referring to the Black Sea region. "The multifaceted consequences require an in-depth analysis and review of our policies, enabling us to preserve the significance of NATO and the EU and to ensure our ability to meet the challenges arising from the war," the Bulgarian diplomat said.

The representative of Romania, Alice-Cornelia Sabau Georgescu, Deputy Director for Security Policies at the Romanian Foreign Ministry, highlighted the exceedingly good cooperation between Bulgaria and Romania as regional partners sharing a common goal.

The challenges facing NATO's future on a global scale were outlined during the conference: the outcome of Russia's war against Ukraine, terrorism, hybrid and cyber attacks, disinformation, and sundry regional conflicts.