Of Obama and the Outstanding Ally Bulgaria

A quick look at last week's Bulgarian newspapers and surprise: Borisov's meeting with Obama went down in history before it even took place!

After it took place, Borisov himself flexed muscles with bombastic statements that smacked of plain electioneering.

True, it is always nice to be praised. But it is good manners to never underestimate the audience and to never forget the most important lesson in diplomacy - listen closer to what is not said than to what is said.

Time to get a reality check.

Barack Obama's statement that Bulgaria has proven to be "one of our most outstanding NATO allies" was picked up in Sofia and ridiculously blown out of proportion.

Haven't we heard that phrase before?

Of course, we have! Small, but influential countries usually get great words of praise when they visit the US president, each one of them hailed as "US closest and greatest ally".

For a small country with little influence like Bulgaria, the praise "outstanding ally" is quite a logical variation, isn't it?

Platitudes are rule of thumb in diplomacy.

Unfortunately for and because of the Bulgarian side, it was at the level of platitudes that the so-called historic meeting ended.