site.btaDefence Minister: War in Ukraine Will Likely Last Long, EU Will Need to Replenish Military Inventories, Bulgarian Defence Industry Will Be Receiving Orders

Emerging from an EU Defence Council in Brussels on Tuesday, Bulgarian Defence Minister Todor Tagarev told Bulgarian journalists that the war in Ukraine will likely continue and the EU Member States will need to replenish their military inventories, which means that the Bulgarian industry will be receiving orders.

Tagarev said that the participants in the meeting discussed steps to speed up and increase the production of ammunition for Ukraine and to replenish the stocks of the EU Member States. He added that Bulgaria is a major producer of ammunition proportional to its population and economy size.

He said that December 8 is the deadline for companies from the military-industrial complex to apply for funding for expansion of production capacity. The Minister expects at least two or three Bulgarian companies to receive additional funding. "Companies are even interested to make their own investment because they see that demand is huge. The EU provides part of the funding for additional investments," Tagarev said adding that he hopes for decisions to be made fast.

Commenting on a joint initiative of Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkiye aimed at enhancing security in the Black Sea, he said that the three countries will have a team in Ankara in ten days or so, which will observe how the agreement is put into practice. If everything goes according to plan, we will have such an operation soon," he noted.

As to the no-confidence motion against the Denkov Cabinet due this week, Tagarev is optimistic that the Government will survive. "The motion will fail. That is for sure," he added. "We will be get another opportunity to explain this country's defence policy again. I’m starting to worry that a lot of time is wasted for discussing the same matters over and over again, and usually those who ask the questions are rarely interested in the answer, and use the opportunity for propaganda and making insinuations. This is getting tiresome," Tagarev said.