Bulgarian PM Borissov to visit White House on December 3
US president Barack Obama will host Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov in the Oval Office on December 3, the White House said in a statement on its website on November 26.
Obama and Borissov, who will be in Washington on a working visit, will discuss a broad range of bilateral and regional issues, including “Bulgaria’s leadership in NATO and its valuable contributions to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.”
The White House said that Obama was looking forward to “receiving updates on Bulgaria’s investigation into the July 18 2012 terrorist attack in Burgas and ongoing rule of law and judicial reforms.”
Five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in the terrorist attack, which Israel has blamed on Lebanese militia Hezbollah and Iran – a stance that Bulgaria has been in no rush to share.
Bulgarian police later released computer-generate identikits of the Bourgas suicide bomber and a suspected accomplice, asking for assistance from the general public and fellow Interpol members. While this has generated useful leads, the investigation was still underway, with Bulgarian officials declining to make public statements on its progress.
This will be the third meeting between Borissov and Obama in the past two years – in April 2010, the two met at an official dinner hosted by Obama for leaders of Central and Eastern European countries (he was in Prague to sign an accord with Russia on nuclear arms limitation). Earlier this year, in May, Borissov and Bulgarian President Rossen Plevneliev met with Obama during the Nato summit in Chicago.
