Bulgaria Defense Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, has welcomed the adoption of Serbia and Montenegro as full members of the South-Eastern Europe Defense Ministerial (SEDM) process.

The annual meeting of the Ministers of Defense of South-Eastern Europe took place in Sofia, on Wednesday. The event was attended by the defense ministers of the countries, which all had the status of observers – Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia.

Bulgaria PM Boyko Borisov welcomed the Ministers by stating; "I've always claimed that the Balkans should have peace, understanding and cooperation, and the more quickly all become EU members, the better it will be for the prosperity of our nations."

Mladenov later said that the "13 year history of regional military cooperation in Southeast Europe is a unique achievement... We have no difference in the definition of risks and threats such as organized crime, trafficking, corruption, because it is obvious that all of us equally suffer from them."

Regarding Serbia and Montenegro being welcomed as full members of the format from 2010 Mladenov added; “This is extremely important because the security map of Southeast Europe should not have white spots.”

Bulgaria took over the rotating Chairmanship of the South-Eastern Europe Defense Ministerial (SEDM) process on July 15, 2009.

At the forum, the Ministers signed an Agreement on establishing the Multilateral Peace Force Southeastern Europe. Mladenov concluded that the Force will be useful in missions around the world including Afghanistan but added that the financial crisis has hit the possible effectiveness of all military engagements.

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