U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (file photo) (CTK)
6 December 2005 -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today praised southeastern Europe defense ministers for their increasing cooperation in fighting terrorism.
The Southeastern Europe Defense Ministerial process or SEDM, began in 1996 as a regional initiative to serve as a bridge for European-Atlantic institutions, particularly NATO.
The chairman of the organization, Besnik Baraj of Albania, also said the organization "played a significant role in building regional stability."
The defense ministers met to discuss border security, peacekeeping operations, sharing technology and military training exercises in 2006 among other topics.
The members of SEDM are Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States.
Moldova attended as an observer and Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina were guests.
(AP/AFP)