Bulgaria may provide artillery or air force instructors for Afghanistan’s army, according to NATO Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

“We appreciate highly the commitment of Bulgaria to the Western Balkans and the reconstruction of Afghanistan“, Rassmusen said during his meeting with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov.

He congratulated Bulgaria for its contribution in Afghanistan and expressed hope that the International Security Assistance Force would have transferred much of its responsibility to the local institutions in Afghanistan by the NATO summit in November 2010 in Lisbon.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister, Nikolay Mladenov has noted the irrevocability of the Bulgarian commitment in Afghanistan, and discussed with Rasmussen the possibility of increasing the number of Bulgarian troops there.

Mladenov thoroughly informed the Secretary General of NATO about his recent tour in the Western Balkans - including Bulgaria’s intention to support the next steps of Bosnia and Herzegovina with respect to the action plan for membership. He also stressed Bulgaria’s our good military and technical cooperation with Serbia.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that he shares the same ideas about the Western Balkans and praised Bulgaria's commitment to remove any obstacles to the Euro-Atlantic integration of the region.

During the plenary talks Minister Mladenov said that the report of the special NATO Group, also known as the Group of Wise Men, led by Madeleine Albright, reflects the Bulgarian ideas regarding the new Strategic Concept of NATO, namely: the preservation of the fundamental importance of Article 5 guaranteeing the collective security; the consideration of the missile defense in response to Article 5 regarding new threats, and the addition of the energy security to the key security issues.

Rasmussen stressed the new Strategic Concept of the Alliance will retain the security guarantees, and that the US plan for a missile defense in Europe will most likely be adopted as an all-out NATO project covering all of Europe – which is not too expensive, as it is estimated to cost no more than 200 million over 10 years, distributed between 28 member states.

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