Munich Security Conference
04 February 2011 News
The Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov participated in the Munich Security Conference, which began on February 4th. During the last decades this forum has turned into one of the most significant places for discussing the issues of security. Every year the Munich Conference gathers important figures to debate on the challenges of security.
Organized by Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin, the first conference took place in 1962. Initially the topics were only such regarding threats to the security of the Euro-Atlantic region. After 1999, however, politicians, military and media representatives from Eastern and Central Europe, and Asia have also been included.
This year the guests of the 47th Munich Security Conference will participate in the following main panels: “Implications of the Financial Crisis on Global Stability and Security”, Post-nuclear, Euro-Atlantic Community”, and “Global and Regional Security Challenges”.
The big event of the conference is expected to be the exchange of ratification documents between the USA and the Russian Federation, which will enforce the new bilateral Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which had been signed on April 8, 2010 in Prague.
Among the participants in panels this year will be the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Baroness Catherine Ashton, the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, the Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and the President of the World Bank Robert Zoellick.