Bulgaria would be the most important voice on EU policy on the Western Balkans after Bulgaria joins the EU, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said, as quoted by the International Herald Tribune.
Bildt was in Bulgaria to take part in an international conference entitled 60 Days Before EU Membership: What to Expect, What to Do.
Bulgaria had the experience and the geographical advantage to play such a role, Bildt told his counterpart Ivailo Kalfin during his visit to Sofia.
Bulgaria and Romania were the south-eastern axis of the EU, Bildt said, according to a Bulgarian Cabinet media statement.
Bildt and Kalfin discussed EU policy on the Balkans, the status of Kosovo, and the situation in the Middle East.
Bildt was a UN special envoy to the Balkans from 1999 to 2001 and co-chaired the Dayton peace talks that ended the war in Bosnia in 1995, the IHT said.
