site.btaBulgaria Very Actively Defends Its National Interests within NATO - Defence Minister
Bulgaria very actively defends its national interests within NATO, Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov said here on Friday. He was speaking at a discussion on "The Hague 2025: The Horizon for NATO and the Bulgarian Vision", held to present the publication "Living Archives. National Archive of Memories of Bulgaria's NATO Accession Process."
"Bulgaria is not just a participant: Bulgaria is an active participant and contributor. In NATO, both big and small countries form the consensus on an equal voice," Zapryanov said. "NATO membership has been achieved, but that does not mean the task is done. We will have to work, to present what NATO does, how it takes care of security," he added.
Preparations for the NATO Summit in The Hague on June 24 and 25 are in an active phase, he went on to say. At their upcoming meeting in May, the Alliance defence ministers will take very important decisions concerning the documents to be approved by the heads of state and government at the Summit, Zapryanov noted.
In his words, if Bulgaria delays the modernisation of its industry, in five or six years it will be exotic for the European arms market. "We are at a particular historical moment. If we do not take into account this historic moment to develop our Armed Forces as modern capabilities and our military industry, we will not contribute effectively to our national security and collective defence, which is politically unacceptable," Zapryanov said.
With the new US administration coming to power, the role of the European pillar in NATO will have to be strengthened cardinally, he also said. Investment will have to be increased. "Obviously, 2% of gross domestic product spending on defence is not enough. This year we will have 2.09%. With such military spending, we cannot speed up the modernisation of the Armed Forces. It will be discussed whether it will be 5%, whether NATO will be between 3-3.5%, but that will not be a promise but taking political responsibility to allies that we will spend that much," the Minister said.
Bulgaria shares the view of the majority of NATO member countries that defence spending should be linked to the new set of capability targets. "At next week's meeting of the Council of Ministers, I will submit my report in which our package of objectives and their cost are presented. The investment we need by 2045 will be correctly presented to the Government," Zapryanov said.
There are two topics that will be announced very soon, he went on to say. The first one is that Bulgaria will join the European Commission's decision to activate the national escape clause available under the Stability and Growth Pact to accommodate defence spending without triggering the excessive deficit procedure. "The second, much more difficult topic, is how Bulgaria's Warsaw [Pact] defence industry will have to become one of NATO, Zapryanov said.
/RY/
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