Sofia. Deeper integration of Bulgaria in the EU and NATO, bringing the Bulgarian army’s standards in line with those of NATO, rearmament of the Bulgarian armed forces were the basic priorities Bulgarian Minister of Defence Nikolay Nenchev outlined in his Thursday’s speech before the participants in an international conference on security in the capital Sofia, the press centre of the ministry announced.
Minister Nenchev pointed to trust in the army and its dignity as his main priorities and assured it could rely on his full support.
Delivering a statement on the topic of the future of NATO and the trans-Atlantic connection after the Summit in Wales, the minister remarked he would follow the Bulgaria in NATO and in European Defence – 2020 national programme drawn up by the team of former interim defence minister Velizar Shalamanov.
“We live in a particularly difficult economic environment and I know how hard it will be to allocate additional resources for rearmament, through which we could decrease our dependencies on third countries,“ the minister noted.
He commented that irrespective of the difficult situation, he would strive to ensure the needed resources.
“The money for defence should follow the priorities and I will definitely arrive at no compromise in case there are attempts at spending resources not on what they have been allocated for,“ Nenchev said further.
The minister expressed his concern over the situation in Ukraine, the Middle East and over the Islamic State.
In his words, the possibility of terrorist groups’ entering the territory of Bulgaria and carrying out activities has to be reduced to a minimum.
The two-day form is held at Central Military Club in Sofia and is organised by the Sofia Security Forum and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) with the support of the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Ministry.
Deeper integration of Bulgaria in EU, NATO priority: defence minster
