site.btaUPDATED PM Says Sole Guarantee for Bulgaria's Defence Is Its Membership of NATO

Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said that the sole guarantee for Bulgaria's defence is its NATO membership. He said that as he commented a remark by President Rumen Radev earlier on Friday that the government was pushing the country closer to war by stepping up military support for Ukraine. "The war is still there and the sole guarantee for Bulgaria's defence is its membership of the North Atlantic Alliance," the government leader said.

"Bulgaria should observe strictly all the requirements that follow from its NATO membership because it has no greater guarantor for its security," Denkov added. "Let us stress that countries that are not members of this pact - Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia - each of them has big problems. At the same time, smaller countries, such as the Baltic states, do not have such problems, precisely because they are members of the North Atlantic Alliance," he added.

He went on to argue that when a country is threatened and there is a common solution, Bulgaria should be "a full member in finding that solution," he added. 

"Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic and decisions, as well as their implementation, depend primarily on the National Assembly and the government elected by it. In our actions we strictly respect the decisions of the National Assembly," Denkov said.

"The caretaker government also sent military assistance. Defence Minister Todor Tagarev has already explained several times that what we are preparing is similar to the packages that were sent during the caretaker government," he added saying also that the President's criticism is "a publicity stunt".