Bulgaria’s Defence Minister: Support for Ukraine of key importance for security and stability
Support for Ukraine is of key importance for security and stability, Bulgaria’s Defence Minister Todor Tagarev said on July 31.
“This support is a moral imperative, we all understand that Ukraine is a victim of unprovoked aggression,” Tagarev, who took office as part of Bulgaria’s pro-Western government in early June, told a graduation ceremony at the GS Rakovski Military Academy.
“It means sharing European values. It is a strategic and pragmatic imperative. This support creates conditions for the replacement of obsolete weapons with more modern or new models,” he said.
“We are obliged to use these opportunities with European or other funding,” Tagarev said.
He said that the main priority of the government was to strengthen the country’s defence capabilities.
“To this end, we have been able to maintain and even slightly increase the level of funding provided for in the caretaker government’s blueprint and secure wage increases within Budget 2023. We are working to review the investment programme in line with the new Union deterrence and defence plans”
Tagarev said that the development of national defence capabilities would be carried out in full accordance with NATO’s action plans, including the new regional plans approved in Vilnius at the Nato Summit in July, and their reflection in the Union defence planning process.
“After three decades of transforming NATO and building capabilities to operate in a wide range of scenarios, today there is again a clear threat and new challenges,” Tagarev said.
He emphasised some of the decisions of the Nato Summit in Vilnius, including the determination of the Russian Federation as a significant and direct threat to the Alliance and peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region, and terrorism as the most direct asymmetric threat.
(Photo: Ministry of Defence)
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