site.btaBulgaria Holds Maritime Anti-Crime Exercise near Sozopol

Bulgaria held a Blue Border exercise on combating cross-border crime at sea on Friday. Four ships and over 80 Border Police officers took part in the exercise near Sozopol. The exercise was conducted in Bulgarian territorial water and aimed to demonstrate the interaction between naval, air, and coastal forces in real crisis situations in a maritime environment.

Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, Interior Minister Daniel Mitov, and the head of the Ministry's Border Police General Directorate, Chief Commissioner Anton Zlatanov, observed the drills.

During a news briefing here on Friday, Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Daniel Mitov stressed the need to protect the country’s maritime border as effectively as the land border. "When we speak of Bulgaria as the European Union’s external border with Turkiye, we often think of the fence and the land border. We must remember that we have a maritime border, and it must be protected just as effectively as the land border," Mitov said. He was visiting Sozopol, where the Border Police Directorate was holding an exercise, called Blue Border, aimed at combating cross-border crime at sea.

The head of the Border Police Directorate, Chief Commissioner Anton Zlatanov, said that the benefits of joint exercises between security structures are enormous. "Today’s demonstration was a realistic simulation of incidents that have occurred in recent months," he said. Zlatanov observed the Border Police exercise aimed at combating cross-border crime at sea. He identified fighting illegal migration as the Border Police's top priority.