US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State: the Sofia Summit Is Historic and Will Be in the Textbooks
15 May 2018 News
“The EU-Western Balkans Summit held in Sofia is historic and will be in the textbooks. I applaud the leadership role that the Bulgarian government has for the region’s European perspective.”
With these words, Elizabeth Millard, the U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs addressed the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria Ekaterina Zaharieva. Mrs Zaharieva welcomed Mrs Millard, who is on a working visit to Sofia.
“The fact that we managed to hold this Summit in Sofia is already a success. It is essential that during the talks the states leave the problems among themselves behind so that we hold a constructive and meaningful dialogue. The stability in the Balkans is vital to the stability of the world. The integration of the countries from this region into the Euro-Atlantic structures is a long-term priority in the Bulgarian foreign policy,” Zaharieva said at the occasion of the forthcoming Western Balkans Summit in Sofia.
“Our expectations for the event are that it will reaffirm the European perspective for the countries from the region and promote the implementation of the required reforms,” the Foreign Minister stressed.
Bilateral matters in the areas of security, defence and energy diversification were among the topics of the discussions. Zaharieva and Millard shared the view that Bulgaria and the USA will continue to actively strengthen the cooperation in these areas and in other fields of mutual interest.
The efforts towards Bulgaria’s accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were also addressed during the discussion.
“Bulgaria has been a good partner of the organisation for many years now and I think it is time for the accession talks to begin as soon as possible,” Ekaterina Zaharieva explained.
This is the second of two meetings between the Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Millard. The first one was held in September 2017 in New York.
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