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Remarks and Official Statements - 2009
Ambassador McEldowney’s Speech before the Students and Faculty of Sofia University
Sofia, April 29, 2009
Thank you very much for the beautiful introduction. And I just want to make sure that you can hear me when I step away from the microphones, and I see nodding heads, so that means I can move around. I‘m now unleashed.
I want to start by telling you how pleased I am to be at this beautiful university today. Even before I came to Bulgaria I started reading about the history of this country, and I read about the history of this university as one of the oldest, the largest, and clearly the most prestigious university in Bulgaria, and so it is an honor for me to be able to join both students and faculty here. As many of you may know I am your neighbor. I live right around the corner, and each day I drive by and I see some of you standing outside, and I also see the statues of the two brothers who founded this university, and they symbolize not just the history but also the philanthropy, the real national thought that went into this place, and it’s a great pleasure for me to be a part of that here today.
Now, we are meeting today on a very important day - a key juncture. In just a few weeks the Obama administration will mark its hundredth day in office. And for many, I think, that is going to be a very historic day. It will also be a day for evaluation, it will be a day for us to stand back and think how it is going, and how have we done.
But this is also a juncture for Bulgaria because in just a few weeks Bulgaria will undergo two very important elections for both the European Parliament and for a new national government. And so it is clear to me that it is important time and there are some very, very important issues for us to talk about.
It was a beautiful introduction, talking about the changes in the relationship between the United States and Bulgaria over the course of the last many decades. And I agree with the Rector that the changes have been very profound, very significant.
I want to start by using two words to define our relationship, and I think they are key and have been meaning to look at them. The words are “strategic partnership.” This isn’t the relationship that we define because we have a shared border, or a common interest, or areas we want to work on in one area - a unidimentional relationship. It is truly a strategic partnership - a relationship that touches on every issue that matters to our governments and to our societies. And for me one of the most important aspects of that is the fact that we proceed on the basis of shared values. That we see the world in the same way and that we cherish the same principles of democracy, and transparency, and equality, and those are the things that allow us to work together and to proceed in tandem as we look over the course, over the span of the many issues that are important to us.
Now what I would like to do today is talk about three aspects of that strategic partnership: security, economics, and rule of law. And I want to give you a sense of just how much we have achieved in each of those three areas in a very short period of time.
Now - looking first at security.
The most important aspect of our security link is the fact that Bulgaria is a member of NATO. And especially for the students here who didn’t live as adults through so much of the Cold War, I have to underscore the importance of this. As NATO allies we share a solemn commitment to defend each other’s countries. Our soldiers are pledged not just to support each other but to fight, to defend each other, and to place themselves in harm’s way if necessary to keep both our nations safe. That is the most important commitment that any nation can make, that any people can make, and it is one that America has made to you and you in turn have made to America. And I think that is of profound importance.
A few months ago Bulgaria celebrated its fifth anniversary of membership in the NATO alliance. We worked hard to support Bulgaria’s candidacy for NATO membership, and we are proud of what Bulgaria has achieved in its five years inside the Alliance. Through deployments, through engagement, Bulgaria has been a strong, has been an active and an extremely reliable and valued member of NATO. That is something that we are proud of and I hope that it’s something that you are also very proud of. It is a great accomplishment.
In addition to celebrating Bulgaria’s fifth anniversary this year, NATO celebrated the 60th anniversary of its founding. I think that to the students in this room, that indicates basically that NATO is pretty old. And I’m not looking at my 60th birthday yet, but I’m hoping it’s a long way off, or at least I can distance myself from it. But as far as an institution is concerned, to remain robust and relevant, dynamic and ready for the challenges of a changed world – 60 years of NATO existence is a very significant milestone. And at the Summit meeting that was held just a few weeks ago, NATO members , the heads of state and government including Bulgaria and the United States, we reaffirmed our commitment to the institution, we also reaffirmed our commitment of the resources necessary so that NATO could deal with everything that is coming our way to include challenges that we did not expect in past years: transnational terrorism, piracy on the high seas, everything from insurgency and narco-trafficking in Afghanistan. These are things we did not know we would be facing, but we now are, and we must act together to deal with them effectively.
And while issues of piracy are dominating the headlines now, one of the thorniest issues that we will have to deal with will be Afghanistan. We have already had some long and very difficult experience in our military engagements in Afghanistan, and it is clear that we together are going to have to redouble our efforts if we are going to achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves. At the recent summit, NATO allies agreed to expand and accelerate training of the Afghan army and police, and Bulgaria has made important contributions to this effort already, and it has pledged itself to do even more. And that is a very welcome and very significant part of what we are doing together in this alliance.
In addition to what we do in a multilateral form of NATO, our strategic partnership has a very key bilateral defense, bilateral dimension in terms of our defense cooperation. And part of our commitment as a friend, partner, and ally of this country is to help strengthen the Bulgarian military. We work and train together at the Joint Training Facilities (JTFE) in Novo Selo, Bezmer and Graf Ignatievo. We have sponsored over 10,000 Bulgarian participants in a variety of training programs, and we have spent millions of dollars here to help modernize the Armed Forces.
When I have talked about this in the past, people have been very polite in the group session, and then afterwards they have come to me privately and they said: Ambassador, tell us really, why do you do this? Why are you spending millions of dollars to build the Bulgarian military and to set up JTFE. What’s the secret agenda? And I repeated to them that there is no secret agenda, but there is a very clear open agenda, and that is - we know that a strong Bulgaria is good for this country, good for the region, and good for the United States.
We want this country to be as strong as it possibly can, we want this country to be able to promote and defend its interests, and a strong ally is good for the United States. And that’s why we are committed to this part of our relationship.
But we also know that in today’s world, security of a country’s citizens requires much more than defense cooperation. Whenever I hear my personal history read, I cringe because it indicates to how long I have been doing these things. But back in the day, as a friend of mine likes to say, when I was much younger and working on Arms Control Negotiations between the then-Soviet Union and the United States, hard security was the issue driving the headlines and we were counting nuclear warheads and missiles, and that was the key issue. But today we know that security is much more than that. Defense is a part of what we have to do to be safe and secure, but we also have to deal with issues of the economy and the environment, of technology. We have to deal with issues like health pandemics whether it’s the Spanish Flu or the Swine Flu. We’ve got to deal with all of those issues together. And when President Bush hosted President Parvanov in the White House in 2005, they agreed that we had to work harder on those issues; we had to strengthen our commercial, trade and investment cooperation, and that’s exactly what we are doing.
Recently we have concluded two documents which may sound technical to you - they are a Double Taxation Treaty and a Bilateral Investment Treaty – but as technical as they may sound, these are actually key documents that will facilitate economic trade and investment and other forms of commercial interaction between our two countries, and that’s important for prosperity and envelopment on both sides of this relationship.
The United States is far away, and there are a lot of European countries that are much closer. Generally your top trading partners tend to be right next door to you - that’s the case with the United States – our top trading partners, some of them, certainly are Canada and Mexico although we have many others. But here I can say with great satisfaction that the United States is one of the top ten investors in Bulgaria. We are proud of that fact, and we are particularly proud of the fact that we are the only non-EU state to achieve that status. We think it is an indication of the commitment to this country, and our commitment to its economic growth.
I’d like to mention two examples of how U.S. companies are partnering with Bulgaria to help bring about this growth. And the first one is something that touches on this University. It is the Bulgarian supercomputing center. It will operate with an IBM supercomputer, and will be run by a Board that this University is participating in and chairing, and will carry out crucial research in mathematics, physics and chemistry. That is a tremendously important innovation that we wanted to be able to help make happen, and we are delighted that we are able to partner with Sofia University to do that.
But there is another example that I think also proves the point, and that is the “Innovations Center,” which Microsoft Corporation is helping set up with the Technical University here in Sofia. And this is also helping bring Bulgarian students, Bulgarian professors together with advanced technology to further research, and then to allow that research to be applied to the Bulgarian economy and Bulgarian society. Those are really key and very positive developments.
We have many other investments as part of our commercial relationship that touch on everything from energy projects and distribution centers to telecommunications. I know that many more American firms are interested in Bulgaria for obvious reasons. This is a very attractive place to invest, it is an attractive place to live and it’s got a wonderful population. I see the people of Bulgaria as this country’s greatest resource. But times are tough. We are facing a staggering economic crisis, and it is essential that all of us individually and collectively become even more competitive and even more attractive to foreign investors. What we need to do, and I want to be very honest with you about that, foreign companies must be convinced that there is adequate enforcement of legal regulations here, especially on the issue of intellectual property rights; they need a substantial pool of talented managers and skilled labor; and they need a business climate where the rule of law is not just present but is dominant.
I believe, and I will go so far as to say I know, that Bulgaria can be one of if not the most attractive place to invest in this entire region. But it won’t happen unless the government of this country takes very aggressive action. And there are two steps in particular that are necessary for this. The first one is to create a track record. There are big American companies already operating here; those that are having problems should find their problems solved in a quick and equitable fashion, and then those companies can be advocates for Bulgaria, telling the positive story of this country to others who are interested in coming. But second, the government should also develop an enhanced program of incentives, such as rebates on taxes or special tariff arrangements, but with an explicit eye to saying, “We want Bulgaria to be the engine of economic development in this region, the incubator for new ideas, the place where somebody with a new idea and a lot of energy, somebody who wants to do something exciting in research or business, can come and find a receptive place. I have said in the past that I would like Bulgaria to be the Singapore of the Southeast European Region, and I think that’s a worthy goal for us to have. I know people are smiling because Singapore is the world’s easiest place to do business. But Bulgaria can be the easiest place in Southeastern Europe.
But now let me turn a bit from the business climate to another key part of our economic relationship, and that’s energy. I think everyone in this room was here in January, right? It got awfully cold for two weeks in January. And I remember during that incredible cold snap when this country went without natural gas – the central form of heating for homes and industry for two long weeks. It was not an easy time. But out of that crisis, I believe, has come a realization that something must change. This country, as EC President Barroso said recently, this country and others in the region should never be forced to experience that kind of thing again. And what we have to do now is work together to figure out how to make that a reality, how to deal with that. And people have asked me, “Why has energy become the great new game, why does it matter? Think for a minute about how the economy runs; think for a minute if we lost our energy source right now. No part of our society can really function – whether it’s agriculture, or industry – everything we do needs energy to fuel it.
At the moment, Bulgaria gets all of its energy or the majority of its energy, from one source along one route. When there is a problem with either that supply or that transit route, Bulgaria is left out in the cold. And that’s why the summit meeting that was held last weekend in Sofia, that’s why 27 governments were represented along with the EU, EBRD, and other international organizations, to try to say that we have to develop arrangements that provide, in a direct and transparent manner, the energy that economies and societies need. It was an important initiative on behalf of the Bulgarian government, and we were very, very pleased to take part. We were also so pleased to see the Bulgarian government introduce an initiative involving a group called EITI, which is the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which is designed to bring about greater transparency in the transit or the transport of energy. That’s a very crucial thing, and we’ve seen headlines recently about agreements on energy. People need to know the content of these agreements so that you and other members of this country can evaluate what has been done with his crucial resource of society.
None of the things that we’re talking about on energy are going to be easy and none of them are quick. These are multiple year projects that we will have to work on for a very long time. But as we proceed, one of the things I want to be clear about is how we are looking at the issues. Many people have portrayed energy as the new great game between the United States and Russia. They have portrayed this as a zero sum conflict between the United States or the West on one hand, and Russia on the other. And what I want to say to you today is that that is a false portrayal. That does not accurately reflect what we are trying to do. Russia provides 60 % of Europe’s energy needs, and it’s going to continue to be a key part of the energy equation on this continent. What we want to do is to work together with friends and partners all across the continent to set up arrangements so that energy is provided in a safe, reliable, transparent, and diverse manner - we can talk about what those words mean - for every country that is here in Europe and across Eurasia. And so when people say to me, “Are you for Nabucco or against South Stream?” My answer is, “We are for Bulgaria.” We are for Bulgarian interests; we are for making sure that Bulgaria isn’t out in the cold in the middle of a January that has one of the coldest snaps in many years. We want this country to get the energy it needs, and to be able to make its own decisions about how it’s going to use that energy, and to pay responsible market prices for it.
But there is another part of the energy equation, and it’s important that we never overlook that, and that’s our environment. We spend a lot of time talking about hydrocarbons, about oil and gas, but what we also have to look at sources of energy that are clean and renewable and do more to protect our environment. This is something that President Obama has set as one of his top priorities that he is looking to advance as part of the Stimulus Package for the United States, and we are trying to work together with allies around the world to advance this. One of the things that our Embassy is doing in conjunction with the American Chamber of Commerce is hosting a conference on renewable and efficient energy technologies. That conference will be held on May 19, and I hope to see many of you there. But it’s a chance for us again, in the context of the strategic partnership, to say how we can help each other get the hydrocarbons that we need now, and prepare for clean and renewable and efficient energy sources in the future. And it’s a key thing we need to keep doing together.
Let me, as a third and final issue, say a few words about the rule of law. I mention this because it’s something that I know is of great interest; it is also a part of our strategic cooperation, a scenario where we have done a lot together and where we must continue to work. I think you all know that a lot has been accomplished in the recent years, and I want to mention just a few positive steps that have been taken.
There are Model Courts in Bulgaria that are implementing improved procedures. There is new legislation, including on conflict of interest, public procurement, and political party financing. Private businesses have reported a reduction in pressure from government officials in administrative positions. And, just last year, the Bulgarian government closed duty free shops on Bulgaria’s land borders, which was also a very important step in fighting organized crime. These were not easy things to do, and the people who fought to make them happen were very courageous and deserve our praise.
But as we look ahead, as we look at the scene today and where you want to take your country next, I think it’s also important to acknowledge that troubling gaps that still remain. And when I talk to Bulgarian citizens across this country, what they’ve said to me is that they are still waiting for a groundbreaking, a real conviction of a senior organized crime figure, that they are still waiting to see the shattering of ties between shady businessmen on one hand and politicians on the other, and they are still waiting, they the people of Bulgaria are still waiting for politicians who have abused the public trust to spend time in jail.
And you shouldn’t have to wait much longer. Those are things that need to happen. I believe those things will happen. But not without political leadership, not without serious and concerted efforts by law enforcement and by society, and not without will that comes from all part of the equation, both political and private. We as part of our partnership, as part of our dialogue, have committed to help Bulgaria achieve its goals on rule of law. We’ve done some good things already, but we’re are still working and we’re still working together. It is a priority that we’ve set for ourselves and that Bulgaria has set for itself.
It is also a priority of ours to help Bulgaria, to support Bulgaria, as it proceeds into two very important elections in June and July.
I will tell you honestly that it was our hope that the new election law would include the provisions of the Integrity Pact, a series of steps for beefing up election procedures that was proposed by a group of civil society organizations. And while some important elements of the Integrity Pact were included, it was disappointing that others were not. It is also disappointing that at the last minute, unexpected changes to the law, and some inconsistent procedures, have become a source of public controversy.
But what is most important now is to look ahead to the election; it is for Bulgarians get out and vote; to overcome one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the region, and to work to ensure that these elections are free and fair and transparent as they have been in the past, and that voters, the citizens of this country, believe in the system. Those are the most important things.
The United States is confident that whatever government emerges will remain true to transatlantic values and will remain committed to our strategic partnership. I personally am convinced and confident that we will take each of the areas of our partnership that I’ve talked about forward in a way that is stronger and more successful. We have a chance to do that, and it’s important that we seize that opportunity and do the things that together we’re committed to do and that serve both of our people. And I believe that with your help, with your support we will be successful in doing that.
So let me stop here. Thank you for your attention, thank you for your continued support, and I look forward to hearing from you and engaging in a dialogue.
Thank you.