Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev devoted considerable time of his speech on the completion of his third year in office on Wednesday to the country's foreign policy.

Plevneliev identified the Ukrainian crisis as "posing the most serious threat to European peace and security after the Second World War".

The President said that his "international visits and interviews aided the forging of a common European position on the Ukrainian crisis".

The Head of State expressed a firm and principled stance against Russian aggression in Crimea and called on everyone, including Russia, to respect the international legal order.

As he had pointed out in one of his speeches the "history of Europe can be divided into two periods – before and after Crimea".

Plevneliev said that the world was threatened with a restoration of the international order of the 19^th century, which was defined by the existence of Great Powers and peripheries between them.

His comments were part of his annual address which this time marked the completion of three years in office.