New Strategy Center has participated on Tuesday, December 7th, in the conference “The Future of Transatlantic Relations: Turning a New Page on Enhanced Cooperation amid New Security Challenges”, organized by the Sofia Security Forum, NATO Center of Excellence for Crisis Management and Disaster Response (CMDR CoE) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
The event in Sofia was also attended by Ambassador Cristian Diaconescu, member of the Scientific Council of the New Strategy Center and former Minister of Foregin Affairs, who was a speaker on the panel focusing on the new security challenges and the future of transatlantic cooperation. Moderated by Ambassador Elena Poptodorova, Vice President of Atlantic Club Bulgaria, other speakers on this panel were also Ambassador Alper Coșkun, Senior Fellow, Europe Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Vladimir Shopov, Visiting Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations and Professor at the University of Sofia.
In an international context marked by multiple traditional and hybrid security challenges, it is necessary for NATO and EU Member States to demonstrate a permanent capacity for adaptation and innovation in order to cope with new threats, to increase solidarity at an Allied level and to strengthen the transatlantic link. The debate focused on possible developments in the transatlantic relationship, how NATO and the EU relate to Russia, as well as cooperation in the Black Sea region, an area marked by increased instability and multiple security challenges. Increasing NATO involvement in order to ensure an efficient policy of deterrence and defence, a unified approach between the Baltic and the Black Sea region of the Eastern Flank and the need for deeper cooperation between the riparian Allied in the Black Sea, were some of the conclusions of the Sofia conference.