Boosting Bulgaria's Defense Budget 'Unacceptable' - GERB Leader

Politics » DEFENSE | September 2, 2014, Tuesday // 10:19
Bulgaria: Boosting Bulgaria's Defense Budget 'Unacceptable' - GERB Leader Boyko Borisov, GERB leader and former Prime Minister. Photo by BGNES

Center-right GERB's leader Boyko Borisov said his party would reject a proposal of President Rosen Plevneliev that military expenditures go up from 1.3 to 1.5%.

He told Bulgarian daily Presa that there was "nowhere to find BGN 200 M [more] for the army" when the country is facing shortage of funding for pensions or EU funding.

In his view, the commitments Plevneliev should take at the forthcoming NATO summit in Wales should be "conformed to the capacities of the EU's poorest country".

The President has reiterated his intentions to declare at the summit that Bulgaria is ready to increase the money it sets aside for defense by 0.2% this year.

"He [Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev] might promise as much as he wants to, it is his right and I am not meddling. But we are the poorest country and it is high time both Russians and Americans, and everydoby understand they cannot constantly demand things from the poorest country and the poorest people," Borisov made clear.

He also spoke against the term "informational war" written in the initial draft version of the Outlook 2020 and against a notion of "any kind of war" with Russia.

"We must not even think of arming ourselves and scaring Russians with war, since what Russians fear the least is to be at war," he explained.

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Tags: Boyko Borisov, Rosen Plevneliev, Outlook 2020, military expenditures, defense budget, NATO, NATO summit, Wales, GERB

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