site.btaDefence Minister: Bulgaria Is Active Member of NATO and Should Not Be Governed by Decisions of Others

December 24 (Asen Boyadjiev of BTA) - "Bulgaria is an active member of NATO and therefore it should not be governed by the decisions of others," Defence Minister Stefan Yanev told the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) in what was his first interview since taking over his current post. He urged Bulgarian politicians to be pro-active in defending the national interest in line with the NATO interest.

Yanev was commenting on a statement he made in a Facebook post on December 21, when he remarked that deploying additional NATO troops in Bulgaria would be unjustifiable because at this stage there is no reason to consider Russia's actions a direct threat to the bloc. Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said that Yanev's statement did not express the Government's official position.

In the BTA interview, Yanev explained that what he wrote on Facebook was his personal opinion as Defence Minister. "This is not the national position yet," he said. "What I meant was that our national position should be supported by sound reasoning taking account of the national interest, and of course, it should be in unison with NATO's shared interests of collective security."

He noted that Bulgaria needs to develop its own capabilities. This is actually a commitment the country has assumed as a NATO member, he added. "Unless we develop our own capabilities, we will be unable to defend our national interest and to do what we are called upon to do: to ensure the security of the Bulgarian citizens."

According to the Defence Minister, the fate of a Land Forces upgrading project involving the acquisition of combat armoured vehicles should be decided as soon as possible. He said: "Our goal is to start the project the soonest possible, in the best possible way both legally and in terms of Bulgaria's economic interest, which implies that Bulgarian companies should share at least in part of the manufacturing process if not carry it out completely, and contribute to future maintenance."

Asked to sum up his performance as prime minister in two consecutive caretaker governments in 2021, Yanev said there were many difficult moments because the government had to manage a few parallel crises in addition to organizing snap parliamentary elections. "It was not easy at all, but eventually we coped with many challenges by acting as a team, which I think was the main challenge, considering that both caretaker governments comprised people of different background, different experience, worldview and political affiliation. Ultimately, we showed that this country can be governed in a transparent way which is easy to explain to the public." The legacy of the two caretaker governments is that they have prepared society and the state administration for necessary reforms, Yanev said. VE

BTA Photo