BG ARMY GENERAL DENIES MEDIA ALLEGATIONS

Politics | October 3, 2001, Wednesday // 00:00

`The operation of the Bulgarian Army structures has be reviewed according to criteria, set by the Defense Ministry and under the supervision of the ministry`s political leadership. Neither the General Staff nor any of its bodies initiated individual actions in relation to the review,` General Staff Chief Colonel General Miho Mihov says in a letter to Deputy parliamentary speaker Assen Agov, Foreign Minister Solomon Passy and Parliamentary Foreign, Security and Defense Policy Committee chairman Stanimir Ilchev. The letter was prompted by press publications and opinions that the report on the review of the army forces that was sent to NATO is the reason for the slowdown of the accession talks with the Alliance. On September 26, Agov pointed to what he saw discrepancies between Bulgaria`s progress in implementing its individual action plan and the report sent by the General Staff. In his letter, Mihov explains that the preliminary report has been sent to the Defense Minister. Afterwards, the Defense Minister sent a report on the results from the preliminary review to the Prime Minister in March 2001. A second round of consultations with the NATO teams in Brussels and Sofia was held in June and it was determined, in accordance with the recommendations made by the NATO team, that the final draft of the review report should be available in late August 2001. High-level discussions of the review were held with the Chiefs of Staff Council and with the Bulgarian President. A working group presented the report for discussion and approval in mid-August before the Bulgarian Defense Council. Mihov also recalls in his letter that on September 7 information was received from the Bulgarian diplomatic mission to NATO about talks with a planning team from the International Secretariat of the Alliance during which additional recommendations and views on the final draft of the review report were offered. The Defense Minister has formed a new working group to make the necessary corrections in the final draft of the report. `On this basis, work is being done to include in the report the latest recommendations made by NATO,` Mihov writes. Active work on with foreign consultants and delegations from NATO members is being done to have the review report submitted for approval to the government by late October,` he also explains.

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