site.btaParliament Rejects Motion to Terminate Bulgaria-US Defence Cooperation Agreement

Parliament Rejects Motion to Terminate Bulgaria-US Defence Cooperation Agreement
Parliament Rejects Motion to Terminate Bulgaria-US Defence Cooperation Agreement
Parliament plenary sitting (BTA Photo)

The National Assembly Wednesday rejected a motion from Vazrazhdane on termination of the 2006 intergovernmental Agreement on Defence Cooperation between Bulgaria and the US, which provides for the joint use with the US Armed Forces of four military facilities in this country.

Vazrazhdane MP Nikolay Drenchev said that these bases are not NATO bases and are not in any way related to any collective defence security of a defence alliance which Bulgaria is a member of. “These are private American bases that are only on our territory thanks to the agreement in question,” he argued. “My most important argument, which I want you to consider very carefully, is that these bases are not free,” Drenchev added.

The draft decision instructed the Council of Ministers to take immediate action to terminate the agreement between Bulgaria and the US with one year's notice through diplomatic channels. The Council of Ministers was obliged to prepare and submit to the National Assembly, within one month of the promulgation of the decision, a report on the property, labour, defence and other consequences of the termination, an account of the ownership of the bases, the expenditures made by Bulgaria during the period of the Agreement, the revenues received, the total number of military and civilian persons who used the bases during the period of the Agreement.

In the course of the debate BSP for Bulgaria proposed corrections in the draft decision. The proposed edits instructed the Council of Ministers to prepare an analysis of the results of the agreement and obliged the government to include in its report the property, labour, defence and other consequences of the implementation of the agreement, a report on the ownership of the bases, the costs incurred by Bulgaria and the US.

The MPs rejected both the edits proposed by BSP and the draft decision submitted by Vazrazhdane.

/RY/

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By 11:35 on 29.03.2024 Today`s news

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