29.06.2023
Bulgaria will gradually increase its defense spending in the coming years. Just 1.9% of the GDP in the government’s 2023 budget is earmarked for this while next year the goal of 2% set by NATO is to be reached. It is expected that the percentage will he higher in 2025. This was stated by Prime Minister Acad. Nikolai Denkov after his meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels.
Bulgaria’s Prime Minister outlined two ways in which the country could be protected in the current hard times. First, these are the measures to improve our defense capabilities by personnel training, infrastructure development and armament modernization. Along with, it is important for Bulgaria to be fully integrated into NATO structures and to perform all its duties as a member of the Alliance. In this way, the country will be able to count on the support of its allies.
“We make efforts to catch up on some delays in the development of our capabilities and we count on support,” Acad. Denkov said to Jens Stoltenberg. As he put it, in the past year, the NATO’s eastern flank became increasingly important and joint work can make it even stronger.
Bulgaria is in the forefront facing the enormous challenges and has an important role to play in our collective response, noted the NATO Secretary. Jens Stoltenberg pointed out that since the very outset of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, Bulgaria has been actively involved in the deterrence and in the defense of NATO in the Black Sea region. Jens Stoltenberg recognized the key role of the Bulgarian military in the maintenance of peace in the Western Balkans and in particular in Kosovo and their contribution to the mission in Iraq. “NATO will continue to support and defend Bulgaria,” the Secretary General pledged. Strengthening of deterrence and defense will be a key item on the agenda of the NATO Summit in Vilnius in July that Prime Minister Acad. Nikolai Denkov will attend.
