PM Radev to ask Parliament to approve hosting US aircraft in support of operations in Middle East

Bulgarian Prime Minister Roumen Radev said on July 20 that his government would ask the National Assembly to approve the deployment of up to eight US refuelling aircraft at Bezmer air base in support of US operations in the Middle East.

Radev said that he had received a note from the US embassy requesting the deployment of the aircraft at the Bulgarian Air Force’s Bezmer base.

The request is based on the defence cooperation agreement between Bulgaria and the US, signed in 2006, Radev said.

“Bezmer airport, by virtue of this agreement, is a facility for joint use,” he said.

“So far, in spite of the urgent request for this relocation, we have not made a decision, because according to Bulgarian legislation, such a decision must be made by the Bulgarian Parliament,” Radev said.

“In February, US Air Force tankers were based at Sofia Airport. The then government of Peevski and Borissov [a reference to the government in which Rossen Zhelyazkov was prime minister] said ‘yes’ before they were asked, they lied about the nature of this re-basing, they tried to hide it from the public. The government of Peevski and Borissov bypassed the Bulgarian parliament, which was supposed to make a decision on this re-basing.”

Radev said that the Andrei Gyurov government had extended the stay of the aircraft.

“Our government was asked at the end of May to extend it for a significantly longer period,” Radev said.

He said that the problem was that the military aircraft were based at a civilian airport in the immediate vicinity of Sofia.

“That is why we offered our allies to occupy military airfields – Bezmer or Graf Ignatievo. They refused, so we immediately shortened the permission period to June 30, to give our allies the opportunity to find a new location for re-basing. They left by the end of June,” Radev said.

“This is part of the important diplomacy and the truly serious policy that Bulgaria must conduct, so that it defends its national interests.” he said.

GERB-UDF MP and former foreign minister in the Zhelyazkov government Georg Georgiev said on July 20: “GERB, as a consistent, systematic party with clearly expressed political positions, will vote for granting this permission”.

Georgiev accused Radev of “hiding” behind the parliamentary majority, which has the final say on the matter, since Radev ha not clearly announced what position his Progressive Bulgaria party will take.

“If anyone thought that aerobatics had been performed so far, then after today’s statement by Roumen Radev we are sure that the state or at least its foreign policy is in free fall mode,” Georgiev said.

Georgiev categorically distinguished the stay of American planes at Sofia’s civil airport, which the Zhelyazkov cabinet had permitted for the period from February to May this year.

According to Georgiev, permission was given in response to a note from the US embassy, ​​which said that the stay was in connection with a Nato exercise.

These were alliance commitments, Georgiev said, and there was no need for a vote in Parliament, but only an order from the Minister of Defence, at the time, Atanas Zapryanov.

Now, however, Radev directly says that it is a question of participation in military operations, which requires going through the National Assembly, he said.