Remarks With Foreign Minister Solomon Passy of Bulgaria

Council of Ministers Press Secretary Ms. Tzvetelina Uzunova: Good morning.  There will be a short news conference.  I give the floor to Minister Passy.  Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER PASSY (in Bulgarian):  Good morning.  It was my pleasure to meet the Deputy Secretary of State of the United States, Robert Zoellick.  This morning, he met President Purvanov and Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha.  We are meeting Mr. Zoellick on the day after I have come back from a very fruitful visit to the United States, where I met his colleagues from the State Department, the National Security Council and the Pentagon.  The main subjects that we discussed were, of course, Bulgarian-U.S. relations.  Bulgarian-U.S. relations, as we noted during the Centenary in 2003 when the Secretary of State paid a visit to Sofia, are now in their best condition in the past 100 years.  It is our intention to develop them in the same way.

We discussed a number of specific issues that are of common interest and on which we have common stands.  One of the issues was the democratic process in Iraq and the democratization of that country and joint efforts that we have made together with the United States.  We discussed a number of economic issues of mutual interest.  The United States is the number six investor in Bulgaria, as of today, and we believe there is room for more U.S. investment in Bulgaria.  There was another issue that we have been discussing with the United States for a long time and on which the United States is giving us full support.  This is the trial in Libya.  Specifically, we discussed the three-party format between Bulgaria, the United States and the European Union in the past two weeks.  It is a format that we hope will enable us to find the best solution and find that solution as soon as possible.  Once again I welcome the Deputy Secretary of State, Zoellick, and I thank him for the visit.

Mr. Zoellick, you have the floor.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK::  First, I want to thank the Minister as well as the President and Prime Minister for being so gracious as to take time to meet with me today.  The purpose of the visit that I have to Bulgaria is that in the aftermath of President Bush's visit to Europe, I wanted to come and visit a number of capitals personally, so as to be able to listen and to learn about their primary interests and items on the agenda, so we can work more closely together during President Bush's second term.

As I mentioned to the Minister, I first visited Bulgaria early in 1990, when I worked with Secretary of State Baker and I shared with him my observation about the extraordinary changes that have taken place and the tremendous progress that the government has been able to achieve.  I congratulated him on achieving Bulgaria's membership with NATO and also learning about the approval of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament for the accession process of Bulgaria to the European Union and I believe that agreement is supposed to go forward next month.

These are significant accomplishments over the course of a limited period of time, but they are changes that we want to try to build on.  So, we also talked about a number of issues that are common not only to our bilateral relationship, but our relationship with our other partners.  I conveyed my condolences to the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister about Sergeant Gardev's death and the tragedy that we share in terms of that sad event.  I also shared with him some of our thoughts about the challenges of the Iraqi people going forward after their successful election and as they move to create their own democratic government.

We also talked about the Bulgarian nurses in Libya.  The Minister, in his visit to Washington, shared with us the very strong feeling of the Bulgarian people and in his visit and also through mine, we wanted to convey how much we want to try to work with Bulgaria as well as the European Union to try to help those very unfortunate nurses.  We talked about efforts that we will be making in the weeks ahead to that effect.

So, I think the Minister covered some of the other topics and rather than have us go on much longer, I think it be best if we take your questions.

Council of Ministers Press Secretary Ms. Tzvetelina Uzunova: Two questions only.  First question to bTV.

BTV REPORTER: Mr. Zoellick did you discuss the Council of Ministers draft resolution to withdraw the Bulgarian contingent from Iraq?  What is your attitude to setting a deadline of December 31 for that.  Also, can we expect the payment of any indemnity to the family of Sergeant Gardev?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK::  Well, we understand that the issue of Bulgarian forces in Iraq is a very sensitive one. And we appreciate that because I believe Bulgaria now has lost eight soldiers in the cause of fighting for another country's freedom.  It is my understanding that the draft resolution that the government has been preparing is one that recognizes that while Bulgaria may change its force presence, that it would do so in the context of the changes taking place in Iraq.  That is what we have encouraged consideration of.  We are now in a process in Iraq where you had eight million Iraqis vote for their own free government just as Bulgaria had the opportunity to do so in the course of the early 90s.

These Iraqis are now in the process of forming a government to create a constitution.  After they create the constitution, they will have parliamentary elections.  All this creates a political process, which also is supportive of the joint efforts of the United States and Bulgaria to try to deal with the insurgency.

We also talked about the economic aspects, because in defeating an insurgency, one needs to combine military means with conditions that build political support, and some of these are aspects we hope Bulgaria can also be involved with.  We discussed how much we have appreciated the support of the Bulgarian government, how much we recognize the Bulgarian people's sense of loss, and how we might be able to try to work going ahead.

On the second item that you asked about, that is something that the Defense Department is in the process of reviewing, along with the investigation that we have been reporting on to the Bulgarian government, and which I hope the results of which will be public very soon.

Council of Ministers Press Secretary Ms. Tzvetelina Uzunova: One more question.

QUESTION:  To Mr. Zoellick, how will the United States, in practical terms support looking for solution to the Bulgarian medics, because in the human rights report you have said this is something that has not been done yet?  And this is a question to Minister Passy: what sort of diplomacy will Bulgaria engage in up to May 31st?  Would it be appropriate for the President to visit Libya as Colonel Qadhafi has said?  Will there be pressure applied or will it be a quiet diplomacy issue?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ZOELLICK:  Well, this is obviously a very sensitive matter, because our interest, our foremost interest, is in terms of trying to help the medical nurses.  We are working closely with the European Union as well as Bulgaria in conveying messages directly to the Libyan government.  We have other people that are in contact with the Libyans that are stressing the importance of this issue not only to Bulgaria and Europe, but to the United States.  I think that as a general matter, we believe that if Libya wants to choose a different course - and there are signs that it has been starting to choose that course - it has to deal with a problem like this with respect for human rights and justice.  We want to emphasize that in a way that strengthens the ability to deal with people who are caught in a tragedy that is unfair and one that we want to try to do our best to help them with as a humanitarian measure.

FOREIGN MINISTER PASSY (in Bulgarian): Let me add something.  I am not sure whether everyone understood in relation to Mr. Zoellick's congratulations.  He congratulated us on the decision of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Policy, which some minutes ago approved out of 74 possible votes, 73 voted in favor of the resolution, so there was an impressive majority which supported Bulgaria's joining the EU. Another topic was the visa issue.  It was a question that I raised when I met Dr. Rice in the United States.  We discussed the adoption of a road map between Bulgaria and the United States and in the implementation of that road map, we hope to get in the foreseeable future easier travel to the United States for Bulgarians and after that, a visa-waiver status for Bulgarian citizens.

In relation to human rights and the trial in Libya, one of the important instruments that we believe we can use in the future is the United Nations.  Yesterday, we spoke with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and I told him of the strong support of Bulgaria, for his support especially on the chapter of the disbanding of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva.  The way in which this Commission was composed did not enable it to play its role.  It is no longer efficient and this was demonstrated in the past seven years by its impotence to do something about the Libyan trial.  This is why we supported the Secretary General in his intention to establish a human rights body within the United Nations and we think that countries that have proven a positive record in their human rights history should be members of that council.

Thank you colleagues, thank you Deputy Secretary.