It's my great honor and privilege to invite you to attend the 14th Congress of the Balkan Military Medical Committee, which will be held from 11-14 May 2009 in the Sunny Beach Resort near the town of Nessebar, Bulgaria, under the auspices of the Minister of Defense. I am glad it is my country that is honored to admit the new candidate-member of our Committee – Albania. With Serbia – the new member from the last year – we become six Military Medical Services from the Balkan countries united under the human idea to join our efforts, to exchange our expertise for achieving our common goals: improving military medical readiness, and providing the best medical care to all our patients. We wish to see all Balkan countries included in the BMMC, but I hope it’s only a question of time, because fourteen years ago the countries founders of BMMC realized that Balkan countries not only shared a common heritage and common values, but also a common future.

We are very pleased at the steady increase in our practical cooperation these last years, because in an age of globalization – in an age that is characterized by terrorism, local armed conflicts and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the only way we can hope to meet their medical risks successfully is by involving more countries in a common approach to the new threats and challenges. Our dream is to see united Balkans in united Europe, in a peaceful world. But till then, we will deepen and extend our collaboration, work more closely together for resolving the most important military medical issues and seek to use more effectively our capabilities to our mutual advantage.

I am looking forward to meeting you in Sunny Beach in May 2009.

Stoyan TONEV

Major General, Prof., M.D., D.Sc.
Chief of Military Medical Academy
Congress President