site.btaNo Grounds for Closure of Airspace to Countries with Which Bulgaria Has Goodneighbourly Relations - Prime Minister

There is no reason to close Bulgarian airspace to countries with which Bulgaria has goodneighbourly relations, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said during Friday's Question Time in Parliament. He was replying to Atanas Atanasov MP of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria, who asked for information about who and why gave permission to Serbia's government plane, with President Aleksandar Vucic on board, to fly through Bulgarian airspace to go to the May 9 military parade in Moscow. 

Bulgaria has no reason to close its airspace to countries with which it borders and with which it has allied, partner and goodneighbourly relations, the Prime Minister noted. "The way the question is asked and its negative connotation suggests that something unusual has happened with the head of State of a country that is not on the list of countries that are unfriendly to Bulgaria, and Bulgaria has not declared as unfriendly, and that there is some kind of a political problem. Or a national security problem," the Prime Minister said.

He also said that on Wednesday, he was informed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that a request had been received for a flight through Bulgaria's airspace of Robert Fico, the Prime Minister of Slovakia. "That was information. Slovakia is a partner country, an allied country and a country with which we have excellent bilateral relations. The fact that other countries have expressed reluctance to have this or that head of state, this or that aircraft, pass through their airspace may be due to various reasons of a bilateral nature," Zhelyazkov underscored. 

The Prime Minister also said that Bulgaria is a country governed by the rule of law and respects fundamental freedoms in the aviation sector. 

In his remarks, Atanasov stressed that Bulgaria country was declared an enemy state by Russia, and the Bulgarian Government was aware of the final destination of the plane with Aleksandar Vucic on board. "Since the Baltic countries did not allow [the flight through their airspace], the question is why Bulgaria has this attitude towards hostile Russia?" the MP asked, saying that this was a matter of national security. 

Prime Minister Zhelyazkov replied that neither the President of Serbia was persona non grata for Bulgaria, nor Bulgarian airspace was closed to transit to third countries. "In this case, the assessment is that there is no danger to national security. The question of whether we like or not who goes where is a matter of subjective attitude," Zhelyazkov underscored.