Page:The Future of the Falkland Islands and Its People.pdf/20

 My personal interest in overseas territories such as the Falklands, stems from their very special if not non-standard aspect. In the epoch of globalization, these territories are increasingly becoming bridges between the principal world centres of power and influence. Indeed, the Falkland Islands are associated with the major centre of economic, technological and political development that is Europe. At the same time, their geographical location enables them to serve as an additional bridge to another such prospective centre like South America. Besides, the Falklands nation is among the very few ones having their homelands bordering Antarctica. These unique advantages offer development opportunities that many other nations are lacking.

By way of comparison, Bulgaria's geopolitical options are essentially limited to the choice between three regional powers of unequal magnitude, namely Europe, Russia and Turkey. Bulgaria is joining the European Union of course. This is a step-by-step process that started with a trade agreement, which was followed by an association agreement, and has finally reached the stage of accession negotiations. At each step, Bulgaria assesses the benefits and pays the price involved. Turkey also seeks EU membership but is less ready for it and, while not yet in the EU, has little interest in Bulgaria joining earlier; the same is true for Russia even though that country has yet to declare it wish for EU membership. (Incidentally, if it were possible Argentina might well have been tempted to join the EU too.)

Russia still pretends to treat Bulgaria as part of its sphere of influence, which is felt in matters of commerce, privatization and investment. While Bulgaria's re-integration with the West has not been easy, we did it of our own free will, with the result being that the growing EU share in our foreign trade has already exceeded 50% with the share of Russia and other former Soviet republics correspondingly dropping from 60% to 15% within 15 years.