2 Sep. 2005

NATO Secretary General visits Bulgaria News 02/09/2005 - NATO Secretary General to visit Bulgaria During a visit to Sofia on 2 September, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he was confident Bulgaria’s active engagement in NATO will continue. The Secretary General met with President Georgi Parvanov and the new Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev. They discussed the key issues on the Alliance’s agenda, including the expansion of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, and the opening of a NATO Training, Doctrine and Education Centre in Iraq this September. Bulgaria hosts major exercise The visit was part of the Secretary General’s traditional round of visits to NATO member countries. The Secretary General also visited Krumovo Air Base, where a major NATO exercise was held from 24 August to 5 September. 22 NATO and partner countries rehearsed joint air operations in support of international peacekeeping missions in exercise Cooperative Key 2005. Bulgaria was one of seven new countries to join NATO in 2004, bringing the number of member countries to 26.