On the occasion of the celebrations of the 10 year anniversary of Bulgaria's accession to NATO, the NCI Agency General Manager, Mr Koen Gijsbers, delivered a presentation on how the Agency could function as a Cooperation Platform in support of Nations during a two-day international conference "Future NATO" on 4 April in Sofia.
During a bilateral meeting, President Plevneliev and Mr Gijsbers discussed key areas of cooperation such as IT modernisation, e-government and Cyber Defence.
"We need more NATO in Bulgaria. Our world class ICT sector can develop the Bulgarian footprint into NATO. IT innovation and cooperation are key enablers for both NATO and Bulgaria to be more efficient, and I see the NCI Agency playing a key role in supporting this effort as a platform for capability development " President Plevnliev.
During his visit, Mr Gijsbers further met with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Todor Churov, the Permanent Undersecretary of Defence Mr Dobromir Totev and the Chief of Defence, General Simeon Hristov Simeonov. The main discussion points during the other office calls were on capabilities and Mr Gijsbers emphasized the message of "Re-use what we have", re-using NATO common funded tools for national purposes. All were very supportive of establishing a multiyear programme of work with the NCI Agency, in the context of Smart Defence and Connected Forces Initiative to enhance interoperability with NATO.
Mr Gijsbers was accompanied by the Chief Strategic Partnership and Customer Relations Manager, Mr Eric Lievre.
For more information please visit the NATO Smart Defence topic page.