site.btaDeputy Foreign Minister Dimitrova: Russia’s Actions Pose a Challenge to Bulgarian Security

Russia’s actions pose a challenge to Bulgarian security, Deputy Foreign Minister Irena Dimitrova said here Monday as she addressed the opening of a workshop on  strategic communications and hybrid threats at the Rakovski National Defence College.

Dimitrova said that intense hybrid activities have been observed since the beginning of the Russian war in Ukraine. She added that Bulgaria and the region need to be more resilient in the face of hybrid threats, but that would require a complex transformation in the digital field.

According to Dimitrova, hybrid challenges cross physical boundaries. The military conflict in Ukraine is the first war which uses artificial intelligence and big data processing as weapons. Cyberattacks, industrial espionage, and the spread of anti-European and anti-NATO rhetoric were also listed as risks.

The workshop began with a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of the 9/11 attack in the US in 2001.

"Bulgaria stands firmly by the US in its fight against terrorism and extremism in all its shapes and forms," Dimitrova added.

The weeklong workshop entitled Strategic Competition in the Cognitive Domain: From Analysis to Action is organized by the US National Defence University’s College of International Security Affairs in partnership with the Diplomatic Institute with the Foreign Minister and Rakovski National Defence College.

The workshop is attended by experts with professional interests in the fields of strategic communications, public diplomacy, countering hybrid threats, crisis management, etc. They will have the opportunity to upgrade their skills in assessing potential threats to national security and putting an inter-institutional strategic approach into action. Among the participants at the opening of the forum were also Deputy Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov and representatives from the US Embassy in Sofia.