The Commander of Navy, Rear Admiral Rumen Nikolov, participated in the Meeting of the Chiefs of European Navies - CHENS 2012, which was held in Oostende, Belgium, on 10—11 May 2012. Within the framework of the annual forum, the Chiefs of European Navies of NATO or EU member countries discussed topical issues of the struggle against contemporary threats and challenges related to maritime environment, the cooperation among the Navies and the state-owned and private organizations that have adopted maritime responsibilities as well as other issues of mutual interest.

The Chairmanship of the forum has a one-year mandate and is replaced on the principle of rotation. The Bulgarian Navy became a member of CHENS in 2005, and our country hosted the CHENS Meeting in 2008, in Varna.

The basic subject of this year’s forum “Cooperation, pooling and sharing of capabilities” is exceptionally topical under the contemporary conditions of financial crisis and limited defence budgets in all European countries.

Observers of the EU Military Secretariat, NATO International Military Staff and US Naval Forces Europe – US European Command participated in the Meeting as well.