NEWS

We went into Afghanistan together and we will leave together, President Plevneliev said in Chicago

Official visit by the Head of State to the US concludes with attendance of the NATO Summit
 
Bulgaria’s contribution to support Afghan security forces after 2014 will amount to $500 000 a year. On the second day of the NATO Summit in Chicago, each of the member states of the Alliance announced its financial commitments under the plan for NATO security assistance to Afghanistan beyond 2014. The total volume of resources that NATO will provide to the country from 2015 will total $ 4.1 billion annually, as it is envisaged that Afghanistan will participate with its own contribution to the fund. This was announced by President Rosen Plevneliev after a summit meeting on Afghanistan. After 2014, Bulgaria will participate in the process of educating and training Afghan security forces. “Together we went into Afghanistan and together we will leave Afghanistan and that is the clear and strong message from the summit,” the President emphasised.

At the meeting on Afghanistan, heads of state and government approved in a declaration the Alliance plan that responsibility for security in the country be transferred to Afghan security forces. We will remain after 2014, but the mission will no longer be a combat one, but training and support, President Plevneliev said.

It is expected that the issue of NATO expansion will be the focus of the next NATO Summit in 2014. “Bulgaria accepts everyone whose words and deeds show that they share common European values and the values of NATO,” the President said in response to a journalist's question.

A joint Bulgarian-Turkish Business Forum in Istanbul will be initiated by President Rosen Plevneliev and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gül, it emerged after the two met during the forum in Chicago. President Plevneliev emphasised to his Turkish counterpart the need to accelerate efforts to build a gas interconnection between the two countries. Diversification of energy sources was among the main topics of talks between the President and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway and the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili.

At the end of his official visit to the US, President Plevneliev participated in the meeting of leaders of NATO with partner countries and in the forum of young Atlanticists, also held at the highest level in Chicago.