“It is time that the leaders of South Eastern Europe agree on priorities in the field of security – who will specialise in which areas, and on which projects work will be done together. I am ready to initiate the holding of such a meeting in Bulgaria,” President Rosen Plevneliev today told participants in an international conference entitled “Smart Defence - Pooling and Sharing: Eastern European view on Multinational and Innovative Approaches to Capability Development.”

The forum is under the patronage of the Bulgarian Head of State and has been organised by the Ministry of Defence, University of National and World Economy, the George Marshall Fund Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Smart defence is the basis of the allied strategy of both NATO and the EU to overcome the negative trend of reducing defence spending by eliminating duplication in programmes and projects, with integration and sharing of resources and capabilities. Collective defence requires a completely new form of political co-operation in South Eastern Europe and is the surest means of building relations of friendship and strategic partnership among countries in the region, President Plevneliev said.

He said that Bulgaria is a leading country in the project to create a centre of excellence in crisis management and in the provision of disaster relief, as well as in the role of women in senior positions in defence and security. Bulgaria has the potential for specialization and participation in multinational projects in the field of optics and electronics, as well as in shipbuilding and repair of aircraft, he said.

In his speech, President Plevneliev said that South Eastern European countries have lagged significantly compared with their partners in the Baltic region, Central Europe and Benelux in determining their priorities in the field of security. Building and unifying multinational military capabilities will be the main theme of the NATO Summit in Chicago in May this year, at which the Allied Command Transformation in NATO will present a list of 46 projects in all areas of defence capabilities. This requires the countries of South Eastern Europe to agree on the actual integration of defence capabilities, President Plevneliev said.

Later, the President told journalists that so far Bulgaria has bought military equipment “piecemeal” and now has the opportunity, with the support of EU and NATO, to approach an association of several states in the purchase of new defence systems. “When we're together, apart from the fact that this will result in much lower prices, we can negotiate the opening of factories for production and maintenance of new equipment,” President Plevneliev said.