Bulgarian Diplomatic Corps Set for Radical Change on Trade Promotion - Foreign Minister

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov (left) with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, June 2, 2011. EPA/BGNES

Draft legislation put forth by the Foreign Ministry will change the core mission of Bulgaria’s diplomatic corps to promote Bulgarian trade and economic interests, Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) in an exclusive interview.

"If you look at draft legislation which we are not putting forward in Parliament, it has one fundamentally important change, which nobody seems to have noticed. That is that the core mission of the Bulgarian diplomatic service is not just to protect and advance the national interest of Bulgaria but also to protect and advance the interests of Bulgarian citizens and Bulgarian companies. It is the first time that anyone is attempting to put this in the core mission of the diplomatic service," Mladenov explained.

Bulgaria's top diplomat has underscored that the change in question is radical and has largely escaped public attention.

"For completely unfathomable reasons, as far as I am personally concerned, Bulgaria's diplomatic service has shied away from dealing with these issues. They've been left over to the people in the Ministry of Economy. What we need to do is to understand that it is part of any modern diplomatic service to promote our companies abroad. So this is a fundamental change, which will take some time because it involves changing the way you perceive your work," he said.

Commenting further on his efforts to reform Bulgaria's diplomatic corps, Mladenov has defended his approach to the issue of the acting Bulgarian ambassadors who were exposed to have worked for the former State Security (DS), the secret police and intelligence of the Bulgarian communist regime.

He pointed out that his team has tabled to Parliament legislation to recall the diplomats in question, and that he hopes it will be adopted by the end of 2011.

"Unfortunately, we have disagreed with the President on this. I hope that he will understand that the revelation that 40% of the ambassadors over the 20 years were connected with the State Security service, and not doing anything about it is a disaster for this country," the Foreign Minister said.

He refuted criticism that his approach should have differentiated between professional intelligence officers who worked for the intelligence sections of the former State Security, and the secret police informers.

"It is not an issue of looking into the files, and playing God and saying this is a good spy, and that's a bad spy. I don't think it is possible to do that. We need to send a clear signal politically and institutionally that this country will no longer tolerate those dependencies of the past," Mladenov stated.

Full Text of Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov's interview for Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) in which he also comments on Bulgaria's ties with the USA, Russia, China, Brazil, and the future of NATO and the EU, among other issues, READ HERE

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