BULGARIA SUPPORTS NEW U.S. SEDM POLICY, WILL

UNCLAS SOFIA 000593 SIPDIS EUR/SCE FOR CATHY WESTLEY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV BU SUBJECT: BULGARIA SUPPORTS NEW U.S. SEDM POLICY, WILL COORDINATE ENTRANCE OF NEW MEMBERS REF: STATE 107044 ¶1. (U) Deputy Minister of Defense Anyu Angelov welcomed reftel points and said Bulgaria enthusiastically supports the new U.S. policy toward SEDM enlargement. As hosts of this years SEDM, Angelov said Bulgaria will immediately begin work to coordinate the necessary steps to complete Serbia and Montenegro's accession. Angelov did not see any obstacles to this, but his staff members noted that some legal issues will have to be massaged in order to formally allow the countries into the organization at next week's event. One issue is that according to the "Agreement on the Establishment of a Coordination Committee in the Framework of the SEDM Process", any country wishing to join SEDM should first accede to the agreement. It is not clear that there will be time to complete this process in Serbia and Montenegro prior to the ministerial, though he believed that Serbian and Montenegrin representatives could participate in the event. Deputy Minister Angelov was confident the SEDM event next week could be used to express the political will of all members to accept the two new members and to use this historic announcement to stimulate concrete discussions on integration. ¶2. (U) The Bulgarians propose to add the following paragraphs to the official communique of the ministerial: SEDM members responded positively to the official applications for SEDM membership submitted by the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Montenegro and the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Serbia. The Ministers welcomed Montenegro and Serbia into SEDM and encouraged them to complete the necessary legal procedures as soon as possible. SEDM ministers affirmed that the welcoming of Montenegro and Serbia as new SEDM members is a demonstration of SEDM's "open door" policy for new participants, which holds that any country that supports SEDM's principles is able to join. Accordingly, SEDM ministers look forward to admitting additional members from the region in the future. ORDWAY