The official visit of the Minister of National Defence Dimitris Avramopoulos to Bulgaria was completed. Mr. Avramopoulos was received by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev, met the Speaker of the Parliament Mihail Mikov, and he had also talks with his counterpart Angel Naydenov.
Mr. Avramopoulos and Mr. Naydenov after their meeting at the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence made the following statements:
Α. NAYDENOV: We start this briefing on the official talks between the two delegations, headed by the two Ministers for Defence, and I want to stress clearly that, apart from the Ministers, the Chiefs of the Defence General Staffs and representatives of military commands of the Defence Ministries also participated in them.
I want to express directly my satisfaction that this meeting with the Defence Minister of the Hellenic Republic was conducted and to underscore that this visit will undoubtedly promote the development of our bilateral cooperation in the field of Defence and of our military and strategic technical cooperation between the two ministries.
This visit undoubtedly is a proof of the very good relations between us, in a spirit of friendship, good neighbourhood and confidence which exists between our countries. This visit is part of the intense political dialogue, the active relations not only in the field of defence but of security as well.
What are the fields where we may practically use the results of the talks.
Firstly, there are our common initiatives as allies and partners within NATO and the EU. At this point, I wish to stress our consent to support specific initiatives for the policy of open doors and integration of the Western Balkans to NATO and EU.
We also expressed our concerns about the refugees and, from this aspect, also the need, even through common initiatives, to bring this matter before European institutions, given the EU’s active participation in the problem and, at the same time, the financial and technical assistance it provides to countries dealing with similar problems.
As far as the regional cooperation is concerned, there are the common initiatives in whatever regards the continuation of the Defence Ministers’ meetings in Southeastern Europe, as well as the practical implementation of our participation in multinational peace support forces and SEEBRIG, as a key element of these forces; there is also the negotiation, signature and ratification of the table of exchanges between the headquarters.
As far as the bilateral cooperation is concerned, we had the opportunity to listen to the opinions of the Greek and Bulgarian Chiefs of National Defence General Staffs and outline their fields of cooperation which will be further discussed in additional talks and focus mainly on the training of officers of the two countries’ Armed Forces, on officers’ participation in the commands of various international institutions in which we participate and on initiatives related to cyber security. A similar meeting will be held in Bulgaria in December and will regard the exchange of information on software products for the air force and, definitely, about the procedure of signing and ratifying the technical protocol which is attached to the intergovernmental agreement between Greece and Bulgaria about the common operations of defence and patrol of the air space and the transfrontier operations.
This is just a small part of the topics of today’s talks and of the possibilities to develop our relations further. I wish to conclude by stressing once more my satisfaction for this visit of Mr. Avramopoulos and the delegation which accompanies him and has a very intensive schedule. Next there will be a meeting with the Speaker of the Parliament and later on with the President of the country, and bilateral talks between the delegations.
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: First of all, I would like to thank my counterpart, the Defence Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Angel Naydenov for his hospitality. The previous talks were honest, cordial, and friendly, and reaffirmed the strong will of both governments to develop our relations, even further, in the field of defence which is an extension of the already excellent relations between the two countries in all other fields.
Greece and Bulgaria are two of the main pillars of stability and security in the wider region of southeastern Europe. Today’s meeting is a message of peace, friendship and stability for our entire region.
The nature of our relations and the topics of our meeting were comprehensively described earlier by the Minister and I would not like to add anything more. But what I can tell you is that what has happened over the last decades proves that this sensitive area of Europe, so tensed in the past, has crossed the threshold of a new age.
Our states which have an excellent cooperation within the European family as well as with the Atlantic Alliance have inaugurated a new period of peaceful relations, cooperation and, mostly, they serve the same causes.
Our policy in the field of defence is the same. And it is related to every political cooperation has been developed between the two countries over the last years and reflects in the sincerest manner our peoples’ wishes.
Thousands of Bulgarians live and prosper in Greece nowadays, and they contribute to the economic growth and progress of Greece in a very hospitable and friendly atmosphere.
We face the same problems as well. We discussed them earlier with the Minister and we decided to cooperate in dealing with issues, such as the illegal immigration, which does not lie in the exclusive competence of the Ministries of Defence, we too, however, have an extent of responsibility, as well as in other fields.
I would also like, on this occasion, to say that, even though we experience a difficult period in our neighbourhood with incidents of nationalism and populism and the wider region of Eastern Mediterranean passes a period of turbulence, we send a message of stability and security. Our defence systems are open to cooperation and we remain faith to the fundamental principles which guide the European aspect of our policy and our defence cooperation within NATO.
Although Greece faces a long financial crisis, it still maintains one of the strongest defence systems in Europe. Our experience, knowledge and infrastructure are available to serve our bilateral cooperation.
And, if today we want to send a message to our peoples, this message is that cooperation, friendship and understanding have become consolidated principles and values of our bilateral relations.
The Chiefs of our staffs who have already begun their cooperation long ago, have really a lot of work yet in order to make the results of the cooperation we agreed to more obvious.
I told Mr.Naydenov that next year we have to promote rapidly our cooperation at a governmental level too, in order to prepare the second Summit which will continue the work of the one held in Athens a year ago. I am sure that this expresses our will mutually to the greatest possible extent.
I invited the Minister to visit Athens soon, so he may confirm personally all these capabilities of further cooperation. But, I personally will be glad to respond to this excellent spirit of friendship and hospitality, which my partners, the members of my delegation and I enjoyed during our short stay in Sofia.
Minister, thank you very much. I assure you that what we start today will be continued, will last long and, mostly, it will open more fields for cooperation in the future, always to the benefit of our nations, our peoples, as well as of the policies which we have decided to adopt and implement mutually in the name of our common European perspective.
REPORTER: It is clear that, along with Italy, Greece and Bulgaria have become the major guardians of EU borders. I refer to a problem that Greece faces for several years now, while Bulgaria discovered it in a dramatic way the past two years: illegal immigration. Did you exchange views and experiences on this matter in the light of Bulgaria’s intention to build a fence to its borders with Turkey, something that Greece has done already?
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: It is true that we discussed this issue. It is also true that during the past years in Greece we have faced a big problem due to the vast flow of illegal immigrants.
The way this issue has emerged is well-known. In fact recently, due to the developments in Syria, the situation has worsened. We had to take measures. A part of these measures has already yielded fruits. The wall at the northern part of Evros has yielded fruits. The entry of illegal immigrants in Greece by this side has almost been eliminated. Yet the problem has not been resolved since, as you know, Greece has sea borders which also are Europe’s borders.
This is why Frontex has been developed.
Despite all these measures, the problem still exists because it is not possible to control the entire width of our maritime borderline. We decided to cooperate with the Minister, on the basis of the experience we have acquired and, without any intention to interfere to Bulgaria’s internal affairs of course, I believe that the measures taken by Bulgaria are towards the right direction.
At this point, I would like to stress out three points.
The first one has to do with the protection of European borders. We have already developed initiatives and, in the framework of the Greek presidency of the European Union from January 1st, we will discuss with our European partners this issue as well, and we will cooperate with Bulgaria on it.
The second has to do with the consolidation of an environment of social stability within our countries; mostly as far as the part of illegal immigration, that caused problems such as the ones I earlier described, are concerned.
The third has to do with a more practical and efficient policy to withhold this flow. Allow me to say that neighbouring countries, through which these flows pass, should be more cooperative with us.
We understand both the human and the social side of this problem, yet we have to protect our societies and borders. This is not a task for the Ministry of National Defence, we cooperate with the apposite Ministries, but this issue has preoccupied us because one of its extensions relates to our national security.
Behind all these flows, there might be hiding and developing nests that reproduce violence and, I do not hesitate to say, sometimes also terrorism.
Α. NAYDENOV: You are right saying that the problem of immigrants and the measures taken by the two countries are among the issues we discussed and I underlined it in my introduction.
However, let me clarify that Bulgaria did not recognize this problem now. It is now that we face the repercussions of the increase of the immigrant flow towards Bulgaria. Each day, 100 to 200 immigrants enter the country. Last month, 3,500 have entered.
We realise the merely humanitarian issues related to the immigration problem, and this is something we agreed upon with Mr. Avramopoulos. We understand our responsibilities as parties of various international agreements and as countries–members to organisations, with the responsibility to give refuge and the appropriate circumstances for settlement to reception facilities for people who were forced to leave their countries.
At the same time, we comprehend our responsibility towards our citizens, as well as our country’s security in general. The latest measures we adopted, as part of a plan with 7 goals and 33 initiatives, are towards this direction.
The key notion of this plan is to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. We are not content by the fact that we have to build a fence to our borders so as to constrain entrance. In this case I have to say that we are not delighted with the idea of assigning this to the Bulgarian army. However, they are installations that will withhold illegal immigration and direct it towards official border crossing points.
Moreover, parallel to the efforts of the Bulgarian authorities for speeding up the procedures of documentation processing and installation of immigrants, we adopt measures for the return of those citizens who do not fulfil the clauses for the concession of H&C grounds status, and immigrant status, and this is a part of our responsibilities: on one hand Greece, as part of the Schengen agreement, on whose territory the Frontex force is deployed, and on the other hand Bulgaria, which is not part of the Schengen agreement, even though it fulfils all criteria and makes all efforts to comport as a country that realises its responsibilities.