site.btaForeign Minister Mitov: Bulgaria Has Always Championed Idea about Stronger Presence, Exercise in Black Sea but under NATO Flag

Foreign Minister Mitov: Bulgaria Has Always Championed Idea about Stronger Presence, Exercise in Black Sea but under NATO Flag

Sofia, June 18 (BTA) - Speaking to reporters on Saturday Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov said that Bulgaria has always championed the idea for a stronger presence and a training exercise in the Black Sea, but under the flag of NATO.

Mitov's words came after on June 16 Sofia firmly refused to back Romania's initiative for a joint fleet of Bulgaria, Turkey and Ukraine in the Black Sea.

On Saturday Mitov said that Bulgaria has not committed itself to participating in any type of regional formats. He said that a debate has been going on for a long time in NATO on how to "format the stronger presence in the Black Sea basin". The Foreign Minister said the discussion is still going on, concrete decisions have not yet been made so that he found it absolutely unnecessary that separate elements of the debate were turned into a cause for "public over-dramatization". "This is why we need to de-dramatize the discussion and make it rational as it had been before the flare-up," Mitov said.

The diplomat said that after the annexation of Crimea and after the piling up of considerable armaments at the Black Sea basin and in Crimea on the part of Russia, the strategic environment and also the political environment changed very much and that as a defence alliance, NATO has its obligations to provide opportunities for deterrence of the forces by the other party. He said that this also pertains to the issues of the Bulgarian national security, which the Bulgarian government must take into account. "This is why our discussion goes on within NATO with our partners," Mitov said.

"Where diplomacy ends, war starts, and my task is for the diplomacy to continue to work and for the problems to be solved through it," Mitov said, adding that no one intends to fight with no one. "NATO is a defence alliance and acts so as to be able to ensure the protection of its allies," he said.

Dwelling on Turkey's unilateral suspension of a readmission protocol with Bulgaria, Mitov said that the dialogue with the Turkish authorities on the issue continues. The Foreign Minister voiced a hope that the tension and pressure along the Bulgarian border will not increase but noted that "the proper measures must be taken". He recalled his insistence for Plan B. Mitov said that Bulgaria has already required including an extraordinary topic on the implementation of the readmission agreement between the EU and Turkey on the agenda of the upcoming EU Foreign Affairs Council. He said that the discussion must take place and say what is to be done if the EU finds itself in a situation in which the agreement is not implemented.