​(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Friday, 2 November 2018), made the following remarks at the joint statements with the attending heads of state at the Craiova Forum in Varna Bulgaria:
 
"Prime Minister Borisov, Boyko, thank you for hosting this and for this wonderful invitation. President Vucic, Alexander, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, these are all real friends.
 
You know, in political life you say friends and that’s supposed to be pro forma, but this is not pro forma. These are warm, close friends, and I want to start by saying what a singular honor it is for me, really for my country, to be invited to attend your regional meeting, which I think makes for advancing your own interests within the context of Europe. I think that these regional meetings, as I could judge from the Visegrad and the Baltics, is a very wise approach to advancing your national interests and your regional interests. And I’m very proud that you invited me in this context.
 
But I want to touch first on history. The Jewish people went through the greatest torment of mankind during the Holocaust, and in each of your countries there were brave men and women who stood up and saved Jews, very often in detriment of their own lives. And this was done repeatedly, something we never forget. And I attach that to two things. One, your common position against antisemitism today, which still rears its ugly head, and each one of your governments takes a very strong position against it, and we appreciate it very much. We think it’s important, primarily because this hatred perhaps can start with Jews, but quickly it spreads to everyone else. So I think it’s for our common humanity, it’s a great service you are all performing. And also the commemoration, the commemoration of Jewish sites, Jewish synagogues and documentation is something that we in Israel deeply appreciate.
 
I’d like to also say that we, in our own way, reciprocate for this historical action on the part of your great citizens by protecting European lines, by having exchanges with our intelligence services, which I believe are second-to-none in fighting terrorism, in uncovering terrorist attacks. We’ve done that in dozens of terrorist attacks on the soil and in the skies of Europe, we have prevented, and we do so with excellent cooperation from your various services. It’s something that I think safeguards the citizens of each of our countries, and not everyone knows about it, but I take this opportunity to thank you for this cooperation, and to express our commitment to continue this important cooperation in saving lives.
 
We discussed bilaterally with each of our friends here how we can increase Israeli cooperation, but within the group context let me say that we have three things that I think are important to our common future. The first thing is technology; the second is energy; and the third is security, which I’ll expand on, touched upon briefly.
 
On technology, there is a revolution in the world, an extraordinary revolution where every single endeavor, human endeavor is being technologized. Israel is an innovation nation. We have 8,000 startups, and the number is growing all the time—anything from cybersecurity to health, water management, IT, every field, every single field: growing food, making crops last longer, making them better suited for people’s diets and so on. These things we want to share, are eager to share with our friends here in various ways. And I think the future belongs to those who innovate.
 
We can do a lot more together, and we in Israel are eager to do so. We discussed some ideas of how to do that. And we’re already doing some of that. There is more to be done, more to be done.
 
Products of the mind are enormously valuable. And we can see that because in the last 10 years, the 10 leading companies in the world have shifted to companies that produce products of the mind. There is more to be done; we have to do it with you.
 
The second field is energy. We need energy. Everybody needs energy. And we discussed how Israel can help meet the energy goals of the countries represented here. We have two projects that we discussed. One relates to one that is already being discussed, is already underway, and to the extent that we can help your countries increase the efficiency of the energies that you receive, obviously we’re going to help as best as we can.
 
Second, we’re developing what has already been mentioned here—the East Med pipeline. This will be the longest underwater gas pipeline in the world. It will go from our gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean through Cyprus, to Crete, to Greece and to Italy and possibly go up to the Balkans. We discussed that. We are now in the feasibility phase. We want to move it very rapidly, and I hope that the feasibility shows that it can be done, because if it can be done, it must be done. And I think that this will be a great assistance to, well, to us exporting this gas, to you in diversifying your gas resources. So we’re discussing this in a very serious way, in a very purposeful way.
 
The third question is security. I discussed the ways that Israel prevents terrorist attacks, but I think in a larger sense, we’re part of a common civilization. We are all democracies. We all seek to better the future of our people through choice and through respect for human rights and human dignity. These concepts are under assault by extremist forces, and the greatest force is the force of militant Islam that threatens our civilization, threatens our future. One way it does so is by trying to bring down our airplanes, murder our citizens on the streets, but it also has a country that, and when I said this I was talking about things like ISIS, Daesh or before that Al-Qaeda on the extremist Sunni fronts, but there’s also an extremist Shiite front led by Iran. Iran, I believe, is posing a great danger to the world. President Trump on Sunday will issue new sanctions against Iran. I want you to know that the sanctions that have already been imposed, we could see a marked decrease in the amount of money that goes to these various aggressive and terrorist activities of Iran. It’s already showing its signs, and I believe that Iranian aggression will be further constricted by these sanctions, and I hope that all the countries here will join in this effort.
 
What happened in the Istanbul consulate was horrendous, and it should be duly dealt with, yet at the same time I say that it’s very important for the stability of the world, of the region and of the world, that Saudi Arabia remain stable. And I think that a way must be found to achieve both goals, because I think that the larger problem is Iran, and I think that we have to make sure that Iran does not continue the malign activities that it has been doing over the last few weeks in Europe.
 
We have helped uncover two terrorist attacks, one in Paris and the other one in Copenhagen, organized by the Iranian secret service.
 
These are part and parcel of the cooperation that we have with the countries represented here. I have to say that there’s something beyond interests here. It is common values. It is also a great sympathy, sympathy of our people. That’s expressed in the growing tourism to each one of the countries here. Many, many Israelis have come to Bulgaria, come to Serbia, come to Greece, come to Romania. It expresses, I believe, a tremendous fondness for the cultures, the peoples and the future of the countries represented here.
 
So all I can say is: Next year in Jerusalem. We’ll be happy to receive you individually, as a group, however you wish. And thank you, thank you, Boyko, for this wonderful invitation. I appreciate it deeply. Thank you."