site.btaBulgarian Top Diplomat to Participate in Foreign Ministerial of Coalition to Defeat ISIS

Foreign Minister Ivan Kondov will participate Monday in a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, which will be held at the US State Department in Washington, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. 

The anniversary meeting marks 10 years since the establishment of the Global Coalition, and the foreign ministers of the 87 member countries are expected to reflect on the progress made in stabilizing liberated areas and renew their collective commitment to cooperation aimed at strengthening regional stability.

The meeting will discuss the need to strengthen joint counter-terrorism efforts and cooperation among partners to defeat ISIS wherever it operates, given its continued spread in areas of weak governance in the Middle East and Africa. Ministers will make a strong call to bring detained terrorists to justice and to block terrorists' access to resources and funding in order to disrupt their core operations in Iraq and Syria, as well as affiliates in Asia and Africa.

Minister Kondov will be participating in the meeting at the invitation of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Bulgaria is engaged in international efforts against international terrorism, the Foreign Ministry said. 

As an active participant in the counter-terrorism initiatives of the UN, the EU, NATO, the Council of Europe, and as a member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Bulgaria is making serious efforts to improve its instruments to prevent and combat terrorism through the direct application of sanctions, the UNSC sanctions regime against ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and criminalizing the financing of terrorism, in line with UNSC Resolutions 1373 (2001) and 2178 (2014). In this respect, Bulgaria is among the group of UN member states that submit full reports on the implementation of UNSC resolutions on counter-terrorism, said the Foreign Ministry in Sofia.