Official Visits

Rice Visiting Turkey, Greece; Plans To Sign Base Deal in Bulgaria

20 April 2006

Secretary of state to attend NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Sofia

Washington -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to visit Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria from April 24-28, where she will meet with leaders from all three countries as well as attend an informal meeting of NATO ministers, the State Department announced.

In addition to attending the NATO ministerial in Sofia, Bulgaria, Rice “is expected to sign a defense cooperation agreement” with Bulgarian authorities, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in an April 20 statement.

For months the United States has been negotiating the use of shared military facilities in Bulgaria similar to an agreement signed with Romania in December 2005. (See related article.)

General James Jones, chief of the U.S. European Command, told Congress in March that U.S. forces expect soon to start establishing an Eastern European Task Force headquarters at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base near Contanta, Romania.

The task force would include several hundred to several thousand American troops on short-term deployments to Romania and Bulgaria, allowing U.S. and partner forces to coordinate and conduct training and missions in Eurasia and the Caucasus. (See related article.)

At the NATO meeting in Sofia April 27-28, Rice plans to discuss preparations for the NATO Summit in Riga, Latvia, scheduled for November. (See related article.)

She will also take part in a dinner involving the foreign ministers of all NATO and European Union countries.

In her visits to Turkey and Greece, Rice plans to “review our shared interests with these strategic partners,” McCormack’s statement said. These interests include advancing democracy and peace in the broader Middle East and beyond, combating terrorism, Cyprus, Turkey's EU accession, and Eurasian energy security, he said.