Eurasia Press & News
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is set to begin a two-day visit to Bulgaria on Thursday.
This will be Rasmussen’s first visit to Bulgaria since he was appointed to the top post in April 2009.
The Secretary General is expected to meet with Bulgaria’s PM Boyko Borisov, President Georgi Parvanov, Bulgarian Parliamentary speaker Tsetska Tsacheva and Bulgaria’s Defense Minister Anyu Angelov.
Experts claim that the visit aims to prepare Bulgaria, which is a member of NATO, for the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal at the end of 2010 during which the new NATO military doctrine is set to be adopted.
The doctrine will focus on implementing reforms in the alliance, fighting terrorism and cyber space crimes and guaranteeing energy stability in the NATO member-states.
One of the most important issues that the doctrine will tackle is establishing an anti-missile defense system.
NATO foreign ministers agreed at their informal meeting in Estonia at the end of April to begin a dialogue with Russia on cooperation in the sphere of anti-missile defense.
In February Romania and Bulgaria indicated that they were engaged in talks with the US on deploying elements of the US missile defence shield on their territory.
