Joint press point

JENS STOLTENBERG (Secretary General of NATO):  Thank you so much Mr. President and thank you so much for receiving me and my delegation here in the Sofia.

We have met many times before and we have worked together for several years but this is the first time we meet in Sofia in my new capacity as Secretary General of NATO. And Bulgaria is a highly valued ally and I appreciate to be able to discuss with you and with your Ministers how we can develop the cooperation within the NATO alliance between all 28 allies and your country Bulgaria.

And I’m also very grateful for your strong commitment to the alliance and to your strong contribution to many of our operations. You have been in Afghanistan for several years and you have been there both doing our combat mission, the ISOL Mission but you are also now continuing to support Afghanistan by contributing troops to the train, advise and assist mission which we launched the first of January this year. And Bulgaria is also contributing to our mission in Kosovo, contributing to stability in Kosovo. And you have provided naval vessels to NATO patrols in the Black Sea to bolster our collective security. In addition you play an active role in keeping the region stable by leading a trust fund on medical rehabilitation for Ukraine, as you mentioned, and support in the Euro Atlantic integration of the Western Balkan.

All this is of great importance and all this underlines that Bulgaria is a valued member of the alliance and I thank you for being that.

Today we face many different challenges both in the south with the terror, violence in Iraq and Syria, we see insecurity, violence in North Africa and we see the challenges we see to the east with a more assertive Russia, violating international law, annexing Crimea and destabilizing Ukraine. And Bulgaria is close to both the challenges we see to the south and to the challenges we see to the east and that makes Bulgaria a key ally and therefore I appreciate this opportunity to have firsthand information, firsthand updates from you on how we are able to face these challenges and how we together can maintain NATO as the strongest and most successful military alliance in history.

So therefore we discussed a range of different security issues today and we also agreed that we need to keep NATO strong. And at the Wales Summit we agreed on the Readiness Action Plan, this plan will make our forces more ready and better able to respond to challenges from any direction. Implementing the plan is our highest priority. The High Readiness Force and the command and control presence in the east of our allies are key and Bulgaria has an important role to play.

Let me stress and underline the following. All the measures taken by NATO are defensive, proportional and in line with our international commitments. Greater readiness requires resources so we also discussed the pledge we made at the summit to invest more in defence as our economies grow and to spend more effectively. This pledge is an important commitment and it is important that all countries follow it through because investing in defence will keep Bulgaria safe and it will keep NATO strong.

So Mr. President thank you for your personal commitment to the alliance and I look forward to continuing to work with you and your country. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking Bulgarian.]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: [Speaking Bulgarian.]

JENS STOLTENBERG:  First I would like to underline that we already see increased NATO presence in Bulgaria and in our eastern allied countries. We have implemented what we call the Assurance Measures which means that we have more boots on the ground on rotational basis taking part in exercises. We have more planes in the air and we have more ships at sea. And all this increases the military presence of NATO in the eastern part of our alliance. All of it is defensive, all of it is within our international obligations but it is part of the collective defence which is the key and core mission and task of NATO. And we will continue to develop this by implementing the Readiness Action Plan which will provide us with a High Readiness Force which is able to be deployed on very short notice. And we are going to establish command and control elements in at least six, six eastern allied countries, the three Baltic countries, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. And I discussed now with the president how we are going to do that, it’s a command and control element partly manned by Bulgarian personnel but also partly manned by multinational NATO personnel. And this will be a permanent NATO presence in Bulgaria being the very critical and crucial link between national defence, national forces and NATO forces. Preparing for exercises, planning and also being the key to provide the necessary framework for reinforcement if needed. So we will always do what it takes to protect all allies against any threat and that’s the reason why we have increased our presence in the eastern part of the alliance. Then you also asked me about investment in defence and to invest in defence is a challenge for all of us because it’s always nice to spend money on something else, but security matters and security is fundamental for so much more, for our freedom, for our possibility to prosper and for our way of life. And therefore it is important that all allies follow through and make good on the promises we made in, at our summit in Wales and that is to stop the cuts in defence budgets and to gradually start to increase. And I have been assured by both the President but also by all the other I met today, all the other interlocutors, that Bulgaria is actually going to do that. Is going to increase defence spending in the years to follow. So I feel confident that also Bulgaria is going to follow up, implement and do what we said we were going to do altogether 28 allies in Wales last year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking Bulgarian]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: [Speaking Bulgarian]

ROSEN PLEVNELIEV (Bulgarian President): [Responds speaking Bulgarian]