Belgium: Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov Meets NATO Secretary General JaVIer Solana

Record ID: 3888

  • Title: Belgium: Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov Meets NATO Secretary General JaVIer Solana
  • Date: 29th January 1997
  • Summary: Bulgaria may have to default on its debt repayments unless it receives much-needed help with its strapped economy, President Petar Stoyanov has said on a visit to Brussels. The President told NATO ambassadors on January 29 "Bulgaria is due to make payments on its external debt later in 1997 which will face our financial system with a final collapse-a default and a moratorium on our payments is not out of the question." Stoyanov, whose country has been shaken by 24 days of strikes and rallies, said "unpredictable social consequences" would follow if the economic crisis in the impoverished country was worsened by meeting its international debt obligations. He told the NATO ambassadors that his country had not received the recognition it deserved for having complied with the international embargo against former Yugoslavia. "The universally recognised mistakes of the Socialist government were compounded by the fact of the billions worth of losses which Bulgaria suffered through the sanctions," he said. He estimated the losses at half the country's total external debt. He called for more direct investment from the west, pressed the EU not to delay on opening EU entry talks and urged it to help Sofia recover 2 billion U.S. dollars owed to it by Iraq. He said the best way the EU could help Bulgaria was by helping the country help itself.
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords:
  • Access Restrictions:This media cannot be downloaded as there may be copyright restrictions. Please contact us for more information
  • Location: BELGIUM BRUSSELS BRUXELLES
  • Reuters ID: LDL001264P9HJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text:
  • Copyright Holder: Reuters Archive
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
Register