Bulgaria's Chief of Defence Staff to Attend Annual Balkan Countries CHODs Conference

Vice Admiral Rumen Nikolov, Chief of Defence Staff of Bulgaria, will participate in the Annual Meeting of the Chiefs of Defence/General Staffs of the Balkan Countries on May 27-28 in Budva, Montenegro.

Apart from the Chiefs of Defence of the nine founders of the initiative for enhancing military cooperation on the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, and Montenegro), the conference will also be attended by the Deputy Chairman of NATO's Military Committee, Mark Schissler, Allied Joint Force Command Naples commander, U.S. Navy Adm. Mark Ferguson III, and the Chiefs of Defence of Croatia and Slovenia.

The topics on the agenda of the two-day conference revolve around the importance of regional military cooperation and good neighborly relations for maintaining and improving regional and European security, according to reports of the BGNES news agency.

The Coordination Group and the two sub-working groups is to create an appropriate framework for a fruitful discussion on today's challenges and security threats that need to be solved through the joint efforts of the Balkan military leaders.