site.btaDefence Minister Comments on Military Intelligence, Black Sea Security, Poland Ending Military Aid to Ukraine

Military intelligence is performing marvelously and is a very important part of the Defence Ministry system, I don't see how it can be taken out of the Ministry," Bulgarian Defence Minister Todor Tagarev told journalists here on Friday, adding that he is "in daily touch" with the military intelligence leadership "because the war is very near to our country".
 
"The options that the MPs will explore should ensure that this part of our intelligence establishment functions in the interest of defence and the armed forces, regardless of who the minister of defence is," Tagarev commented.

On Thursday the parliamentary parties commented in the lobbies on an idea of Atanas Atanasov MP of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria that the State Intelligence Agency and the Military Intelligence Service be merged into a single entity.

In Tagarev's words, NATO's engagement with Black Sea security finds expression in the presence of aircraft and intelligence information even though it does not have a warship presence.

"Our services have sufficiently persuasive information to seek this expulsion," the Defence Minister said, referring to the decision that the Rector of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia and two Belarusian priests be expelled from Bulgaria for allegedly serving Moscow's geopolitical interests. 

"Poland stopping military aid to Ukraine is out of the question. Poland is among the NATO and EU allies that best realize what it is to be the object of Russian aggression, along with the Baltic States," Tagarev said in connection with a statement by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki that Poland will no longer supply arms to Ukraine. On Thursday, Polish President Andrzej Duda asserted that Morawiecki's words have been misinterpreted.