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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (L) and Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev give joint news conference in Sofia, 22 January 2015. Photo BGNES
Bulgaria needs to update its defence spending in 2015 to meet its pledge to improve military capabilities made at NATO’s Wales summit in September, President Rosen Plevneliev said on Thursday.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Sofia with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Plevneliev said that Bulgaria has pledged to gradually increase defence outlays by adopting the programme “Bulgaria in NATO and in European Defence 2020”.
The programme includes seven priority projects for the modernization of Bulgarian Armed Forces.
“Investing in defence will keep Bulgaria safe, and it will keep NATO strong,” Stoltenberg said.
Plevneliev said Bulgaria relies on the support of its NATO partners for the modernization of its armed forces in order to reduce its dependence on a single source for the supply and maintenance of arms and military equipment.
“Achieving operational compatibility of the Bulgarian Army with the armies of our NATO Allies is a mandatory requirement for the efficient conducting of joint missions. This is a priority task for the Bulgarian Parliament, government and President,” said Plevneliev, quoted by his press office.
Referring to the importance of implementing the Alliance’s Readiness Action Plan in light of challenges to the east and south of NATO, Stoltenberg said it will “make our forces more ready and better able to respond to challenges from any direction”.
Looking at the importance of NATO’s high readiness force and planned command and control elements in the east of the Alliance, Stoltenberg added that “Bulgaria has an important role to play.”
“Bulgaria is a strategic ally and partner of NATO in southeast Europe”, the Alliance chief said, highlighting the country’s stabilizing role in the region situated close to a number of crisis hotspots in the Middle East, North Africa and Ukraine.
He thanked Bulgaria for supporting the integration of the western Balkans into the EU and NATO structures and leading a trust fund on medical rehabilitation of wounded Ukrainian servicemen.
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