President Peter Stoyanov and National Assembly Speaker Ognyan Gerdzhikov arrived at Graf Ignatievo air base for the final stage of NATO`s air force exercise Cooperative Key 2001. Defense Minister Nikolay Svinarov and General Miho Mihov, Chief of the General Staff, were also there. Lieutenant General Ronald Keys, Commander of the Allied Air Forces for Southern Europe, welcomed Stoyanov, who is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Gerdzhikov and the VIP guests. The participants in the exercise represent 11 NATO member countries and 14 partner countries. `Ten days ago I would have restricted myself to a more mundane aspect of security issues in Europe and the world in the future, but the tragedy that happened in the United States requires that security issues should be considered even more seriously,` President Stoyanov said. Later the guests toured the air operations center at Graf Ignatievo and got acquainted with the details of the final stage of the exercise.

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