On June 27, 2002 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria jointly with the Center for the Study of Democracy held a Regional Forum "International Cooperation in Countering Terrorism".

The main purpose of the forum was to provide an understanding of the national best practices in countering terrorism and to transfer relevant experience between Southeast European countries.

Government representatives from the SEE countries discussed the national and international actions directed to countering terrorism. The meeting facilitated the dialogue toward preparing future strategies for regional cooperation in this field.
Discussions in 2 parallel sessions - "Combating Terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime" and "Measures against Financing of Terrorism" took place during the forum.

Among the speakers at the forum were Mr. Georgi Parvanov, President of Bulgaria; Mr. Solomon Passy, Minister of Foreign Affairs; His Eminence Metropolitan of Vidin Dometian; Chief Mufti of Bulgarian Muslims Selim Mehmed; representatives of the UN Security Council Counter - Terrorism Committee, the Multidisciplinary Group on International Action against Terrorism at the Council of Europe, the Stability Pact for SEE as well as members of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, diplomats and NGO community representatives.

Agenda of the forum

Speech of Ambassador Vladimir Drobnjak
Speech of Ambassador Curtis Ward
Speech of Ambassador Paulo Tiago da Silva