site.bta Government's Security Council Reach Consensus on Controversial Vision 2020 Document

ESD 16:03:30 01-09-2014
LN1603ES.115
115 - POLITICS - DEFENCE - VISION 2020 amplified

Government's Security Council Reach
Consensus on Controversial
Vision 2020 Document

Sofia, September 1 (BTA) - The Security Council with the
government reached Monday consensus on a document entitled
Vision 2020: Bulgaria in NATO and in European Defence, the
government press office said. The document reportedly reflects
the positions of all comperent institutions. In the coming days
it will be published for a public debate, the statement says.

A heated discussion over Vision 2020 flared up last week after a
draft was published on the Defence Ministry website, saying
that Russia, the conflicts where it is involved and the hybrid
war it wages, are among the threats for Bulgaria from the East.
The President hailed the authors of the document but Prime
Minister Georgi Bliznashki said that the paper had triggered a
mini-crisis, had been withdrawn and would be revised. Shortly
after that the draft document was removed from the Ministry
website. In a media interview on August 31, Bliznashki said that
a great power such as Russia "may not be blanketly branded as a
threat to Bulgaria's national security" and that the threat to
the peace and stability in the region "arises from the unchecked
and aggressive acts of Russia in the post-Soviet space".

According to the statement of the government press office,
Vision 2020 offers an up-to-date assessment of the external
security environment, justifies the investments in defence and
sets out the way to increasing the defence spendings in line
with the discussions within NATO.

Earlier on Monday, Defece Minister Velizar Shalamanov said that
final revisions are being made in Vision 2020. Speaking to the
press after attended the opening of the new academic year at the
Sofia Defence and Staff College, he said that once
the document is ready, it will provide a basis for a new
national defence programme.

A workgroup headed by Deputy Defence Minister Pavel Atanassov is
currently working on Vision 2020 after which it will be sent to
the ministers of defence and of foreign affairs, and finally
presented to the Prime Minister, Shalamanov said. He expects
this to happen before the end of this day.

Vision 2020 will be reflected in the Bulgarian position at the
NATO summit in Wales later this week.

Shalamanov said that the adoption of such a document is
imperative because the effective strategic documents are nearing
their expiration and because the White Paper on defence which
Parliament adopted in 2010, is "apparently not being followed".

The document will say that all projects following from the
national defence programme and having a value of more than 100
million leva, will go through Parliament in keeping with the
Defence and Armed Forces Act.

In his remarks at the opening of the academic year at the
Defence and Staff College, Shalamanov said that the present
environment is much difference from 2010, which calls for a
serious reassessment and adequate response in the area of
defence planning.

In the past 15 years, Bulgaria has failed to prepare a working
plan for modernization of its armed forces, the Minister said.
"Lists of projects appeared but there was no clear financing, no
prioritizing as a result of which over 2 billion leva of the
taxpayers' money was spent and Bulgaria purchased helicopters at
a higher price and worse combat capabilities than Albania got
[in an identical deal]; ordered transport aircraft and then
lowered the number; obtained at a political price frigates and
other combat ships without taking care of the maintenance, as a
result of which the efficiency of these now is considerably
lower," said the Minister.

He also said that Bulgaria has failed to end the total
dependence on Russia in respect of the combat capacity of its
aviation.

These are issues which have built up over the years but the
Minister believes that, thanks to an awareness that exists of
the problems and the existing expertise, they can be resolved in
close cooperation with Bulgaria's allies. SN/LN/