Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Kondov attended the 17th Dubrovnik Forum in Croatia
01 July 2024 News
On 28 and 29 June 2024, Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Kondov presented Bulgaria at this year’s Dubrovnik Forum 2024. The event was attended by representatives from over 28 countries and international organisations, academia, media and business. This year the forum was held under the slogan ‘Dire straits and safe passages’.
The discussions focused on building a new vision of cooperation between the West and the Global South. This year's Dubrovnik Forum presented a platform for an open exchange of views and practical ideas promoting this vision between North and South, East and West. Other highlights were the transatlantic community, the future of Europe and the place of the Western Balkans in it.
Deputy Minister Kondov participated in the exchange of views within the leadership panel ‘Connecting the Dots: Reliable Supply Chains and Maritime Security’. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of Croatia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus and the OECD Director for Global Relations and Cooperation also participated in the meeting. During the discussions the important contribution of Bulgaria, along with Romania and Türkiye, to the maintenance and reliability of the supply chains, Bulgaria's success in achieving diversification of natural gas supplies and overcoming the dependence on Russian sources was highlighted. Deputy Minister Kondov highlighted important elements such as Bulgaria’s role in overcoming supply chain disruptions in the region and beyond, the common challenge of reliable supply chains in the context of the EU priority of key steps to improve competitiveness, achieving reliable supply chains and Bulgaria’s contribution to the Strategic Agenda 2024—2029.
He also participated in the OECD side event ‘Digital and Green SMEs: Accelerating the Twin Transitions in the Western Balkans’.
During his participation in the forum, Deputy Minister Kondov also held a number of bilateral meetings.
Deputy Minister Kondov held a friendly and constructive conversation with the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia, Gordan Grlić Radman, whose focus was on the upward development of the bilateral political dialogue, the opportunities for deepening the cooperation between the two countries and building on the operational contacts between the two ministries. Opportunities for further coordination in the implementation of the key foreign policy priority for Croatia and Bulgaria — the two membership in the OECD — were discussed.
During a brief meeting with the High Representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, the current political developments in the Western Balkans were discussed with a focus on the dynamic internal political processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the need to preserve peace and stability both in BandH and in the region.
Deputy Minister Kondov spoke with Japan's Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Fukazawa Yoichi, with whom they discussed global challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the escalation of tensions in the Indo-Pacific region. Attention was also paid to the upcoming NATO Summit and the cooperation between Bulgaria and Japan in the Western Balkan countries. The interlocutors expressed their readiness to strengthen and build on the cooperation between the two countries both bilaterally and in the framework of international organizations and the Western Balkans region.
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