Bulgaria Defense Minister: Radically New Afghanistan Strategy Needed

NATO's international forces in Afghanistan need a radically new strategy in Afghanistan if they are to succeed there.

This has been stated by Bulgaria’s Defense Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, in Brussels Tuesday during the meeting of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council.

“The change of our military strategy in Afghanistan will have to be accompanied with a radical change in the strategy of supporting local institutions. We can no longer afford to send one kind of messages to the central government in Kabul, and a different kind to the local authorities,” Mladenov said at the meeting in which EU Foreign and Defense Ministers discussed improving the coordination between NATO and EU in Afghanistan with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Bulgaria’s Defense Minister has expressed support for the crafting of a EU Directive on defense public procurement, and requested that the European Defense Agency distribute a list of common terminology so that all parties could be on the same page.

The EU Defense Ministers discussed the development of the Union’s defense capabilities, the military provisions of the Lisbon Treaty, and EU’s current military operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and fighting piracy off the Somalia coast.

A meeting of the Governing Board of the European Defense Agency was also held as part of the GAERC meeting. The Board adopted a declaration for equal access to the defense markets of all member states which is aimed at the gradual removal of all obstacles before the forming of a common EU defense industry market.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!