site.btaPresident Radev Does Not Imagine NATO as Alliance of Manufacturers and Clients

December 4 (BTA special correspondent Asen Boyadjiev) -
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev told leaders of NATO countries
on Wednesday that he does not see the bloc's future as an
alliance of manufacturers and clients. "Rather, it should be an
alliance of partners working together to enhance their security,
 develop high technologies and produce military equipment,"
Radev said, speaking at his final briefing in London after the
NATO Leaders Meeting.

He said: "I prompted a debate on another dividing line which has
 not been discussed at all. The countries [of NATO] are divided
into manufacturers and clients, or buyers. If your country is a
strong high-tech economy making military equipment to meet its
own needs and to export abroad, when you invest in
modernization, all the money flows into your own economy, goes
to your people, and your welfare system is free of pressure. But
 if your country is a weaker economy and you do not make such
weapons, 100 per cent of your modernization expenses flow into
the rich countries. This is really a burden to us now, because
it burdens our welfare systems." Radev added that this has
widened the technological and economic gap between the NATO
countries in some respects.

The President said he has proposed to NATO Secretary General
Jens Stoltenberg to organize discussions which can identify ways
 for much stronger industrial cooperation and technology
transfer to the "buying countries," such as Bulgaria. "That was
also my proposal to President Trump," Radev said. Earlier in the
 day, he joined a working lunch hosted by the US President for
those NATO heads of state whose countries spend more than 2 per
cent of their GDP on defence. "My proposal was that the US could
 provide incentives and much greater support for the countries
which spend more than 2 per cent of GDP on defence - by means of
 industrial cooperation and technology transfer," the Bulgarian
leader said.

He sees a number of outstanding issues. According to him,
Secretary General Stoltenberg "has pledged to seek ways to
continue the strategic discussion and make sure that the
decisions at the highest political level are made on time in
order to prevent possible crises among the Allies."

Bulgarian Defence Minister Krassimir Karakachanov, who was on
Radev's delegation, told journalists in London that Bulgaria and
 Greece will try to provide air policing for North Macedonia
after necessary arrangements. Noting that this is a Bulgarian
idea, Karakachanov said that he discussed it with his Greek
counterpart. "It was important to hear the Greek opinion on the
matter, and it was positive," he said.

Asked whether Bulgaria shares in NATO's Readiness Initiative
(aka the 4x30 Initiative), Chief of Defence Gen. Andrey Botsev
said the country is committing a mechanized infantry battalion
of the Ground Forces, a military police unit, medical crews, a
minehunter in the Mediterranean Sea and two helicopters for
medical evacuation.

The Readiness Initiative was agreed in June 2018. The allies
have committed to having 30 battalions, 30 air squadrons and 30
naval combat vessels ready to use within 30 days. The initiative
 aims to enhance the readiness of existing national forces, and
their ability to move within Europe and across the Atlantic Ц in
 response to a more unpredictable security environment. RY/VE

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