Bulgarian PM at Macron talks: Fate of a country cannot be decided without it being at negotiating table
Bulgaria is convinced that every peaceful negotiation process should be based on the principled position that the fate of a country cannot be decided without its participation at the negotiating table, Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov said on February 19 at the second special meeting on Ukraine, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
At the same time, Bulgaria firmly believes that Europe is a natural ally of the United States and as such it is obligatory to be an equal participant in the diplomatic efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine, Zhelyazkov said, as quoted by the government information service.
Zhelyazkov said that the European Union should remain united and predictable in its overall support for Ukraine.
He said that Bulgaria is consistently committed to joint international efforts to support Ukraine by providing comprehensive assistance – political, military, economic, financial, humanitarian and diplomatic.
So far, Bulgaria, within its capabilities, has provided 10 packages of military-technical assistance tailored to the needs of Ukraine, he said.
Macron has initiated the talks, the first of which was held on February 18 and involved selected European leaders – not including Bulgaria – as well as the heads of Nato and the European Commission as the US Trump administration and the Kremlin engaged in bilateral talks on the future of Ukraine, without involving Ukraine or the EU.
Trump has said that he will meet Russian ruler Vladimir Putin for face-to-face talks before the end of February.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded on February 19 to false claims by Trump that Ukraine was culpable for the war with Russia and that Zelenskyy had an approval rating of four per cent among Ukrainians. Zelenskyy’s approval rating is 57 per cent.
Zelenskyy said that Trump had succumbed to Russian disinformation.
Trump responded, in turn, by calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” and, as the BBC reported, taking a swipe at Europe, saying the war in Ukraine is “far more important to Europe than it is to us” and claiming that the US was “successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia” (sic).
(Photo of Zhelyazkov participating via video conference in Macron’s meeting: government.bg)
Please support The Sofia Globe by signing up to become a subscriber to our page on Patreon:
Become a Patron!
