Tadic: Serbia to Back Bulgaria's Belene Nuclear Power Plant
Diplomacy <http://www.novinite.com/category.php?category_id=20> | August 6, 2010, Friday Bulgarian PM Borisov (right) welcomed Serbian President Tadic (left) in Varna Friday night. Photo by BGNES Serbian President Boris Tadic has arrived to Bulgaria’s Varna for high-level bilateral talks with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Tadic was welcomed by Borisov Friday night at the Varna Airport where the two state leaders gave a news briefing before heading for the residence of the Bulgarian government on the Black Sea coast, the Evksinograd (Euxinograd) Palace. The Serbian President has made it clear that the Serbian investments in the future second Bulgarian nuclear power plant at Belene will be a major topic of the bilateral talks with Borisov. Recent statements of Bulgarian Economy Minister Traicho Traikov have indicated that Serbia is interested in participating in the project for the construction of Bulgaria’s second nuclear power plant at Belene, and was ready to invest in it a sum amounting to 1% of the total cost of the project. “We are also going to talk with the Bulgarian Prime Minister about the Serbian investments in the Belene NPP. The energy problem is important not just for our two states but for the entire region,” stated the President of Serbia. He and Borisov revealed that a joint project to develop and promote ski tourism in the Stara Planina (i.e. Balkan) Mountain, which is a border mountain between Bulgaria and Serbia in its westernmost part, is also on the table. Tadic has emphasized that the two countries are working intensively on the construction of the Sofia-Nis Highway, and as whole on the joint section of Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 10 (from Istanbul to Vienna/Central Europe). He said the construction of highway section in Northern Serbia to the Hungarian border will start before the end of 2010, and that the entire route of Corridor No. 10 on Serbian soil will be completed in 2012. “We have promised to one another to fight together organized crime in our countries and in the Balkans. This is a joint struggle because international crime knows no borders,” declared the President of Serbia in Varna. Tadic did mention Serbia’s gratitude for Bulgaria for its full support for the former’s EU accession, and with respect to other issues. “We have a constant dialogue with Bulgaria, and we are discussing all problems in the economic spheres,” he stated. Bulgaria’s Prime Minister pointed out that he had personally informed Boris Tadic about the “road map” agreement that the Bulgarian government signed with Russia in July for the construction of the South Stream gas transit pipeline, a project that Borisov believes is of crucial importance for Serbia. “President Tadic is one of the most highly-valued Serbian politicians, in whom Bulgaria and Europe see Serbia’s future. We know how hard it is for you to balance the present situation but we believe in your succes,” Borisov told Tadic before journalists in Varna. Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov will also be participating in the high-level bilateral talks with Tadic. In a statement Thursday, the <http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=118886> Serbian Chamber of Commerce has urged strategic economic partnership with Bulgaria. The last meeting between Borisov and Tadic was in April 2010 when the Bulgarian PM visited Belgrade. Back then the governments of Bulgaria and Serbia agreed to speed up the completion of the Sofia-Nis Highway. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=118917 _______________________________________________ News mailing list News@antic.org http://lists.antic.org/mailman/listinfo/news
