site.btaDefence Committee Chair: Earlier Random Budgetary Decisions Keep Defence Spending from Growing Rapidly

“The bill which needs to be paid for random budgetary decisions of the past prevents defence spending from growing rapidly, because, after all, the idea is not to raise the debt level,” National Assembly Defence Committee Chair Hristo Gadzhev (GERB-UDF) told journalists on Tuesday.

Gadzhev participated in a meeting in Sofia which explored possibilities to deepen Bulgaria’s defence cooperation with Germany and looked at current developments in the defence industry.

Gadzhev said: “Bulgaria’s ambition is to quickly increase its defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, but we should reckon with the financial legacy which the government inherited at the beginning of this year. We should wait to see the final document of the NATO Summit in The Hague [June 24-25], which will discuss defence spending.”

He went on to comment that the nations of Europe ought to build their common future and their security environment together, which involves not just political and military measures but also the continent’s industrial base. “It is very important to see Bulgarian and German companies cooperate in developing and implementing all new defence projects in the framework of European cooperation.” According to Gadzhev, many of the products presented at Tuesday’s meeting are already in use in the Bulgarian Armed Forces or are being introduced.

The Bulgarian government’s negotiations with German defence supplier Rheinmetall are at an advanced stage, he said.

At the Sofia forum, Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov vowed that Bulgaria will increase its defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2032.