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Defense Minister: Bulgaria Will Up Afghanistan Mission

Politics » DEFENSE | October 17, 2009, Saturday // 20:44

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Defense Minister: Bulgaria Will Up Afghanistan Mission: Defense Minister: Bulgaria Will Up Afghanistan Mission

Bulgaria's Defense Minister, Nikolay Mladenov. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Defense Ministry is considering increasing the country’s military contingent in Afghanistan and reducing the mission in Bosnia.

The information was reported Saturday by Defense Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, who spoke in an interview for the Bulgarian TV channel bTv.

“Afghanistan is Bulgaria’s largest military mission, costing taxpayers about BGN 90 M each year,” Mladenov said, but criticized the previous cabinet for making a commitment to send a field hospital there, something he defined as too expensive.

The Minister also stated that the Bulgarian rangers should have been sent to one location since the very beginning, instead of guarding two airports – Kabul and Kandahar, which also increased the mission’s cost.

Another deficiency pointed out by Mladenov is the lack of prepared expedition forces to be ready to leave immediately for conflict areas.

“However, the main threat for our security comes from Afghanistan as it does for Europe as a whole. So we must concentrate our efforts there, but we need to do it in the most frugal and effective way so that we can really maintain our rangers,” Mladenov said.

The Minister further explained the Bulgarian rangers are not involved in the search and the breaking down of Taliban and other terrorist cells in Afghanistan.

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