NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has announced in Brussels that, at his meeting with Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov has made a proposal to set up a NATO Naval Coordination Center in the Black Sea in the Bulgarian coastal city of Varna. These functions are currently assigned to the NATO Headquarters in the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Borissov commented that there was a preliminary agreement regarding the center in question and it would have a "restraining" character. Bulgaria has always been against the presence of navy in the Black Sea and the center should play only a deterrent role, the prime minister said. Stoltenberg noted that this year, NATO countries conducted five military exercises in the Black Sea, during which they trained "side by side with the Ukrainian and Georgian navy forces.”