Defence Minister Todor Tagarev and US Ambassador to Bulgaria Kenneth Merten unveiled a Strategic Communications training here on Monday, the Defence Ministry reported. It is held until October 20 and is organized by the Defence Ministry's Public Relations and Protocol Directorate jointly with the US Defense Information School. Participating are 25 officers and civilian experts in public relations and public communications from the Defence Ministry.
Speaking at the opening, Tagarev said that the training is held at a particularly appropriate moment, because today's war is not only on the battlefield; it is a war of ideas, perceptions, and narratives. "In the complex security environment, we have an enemy who is very innovative: Russia uses historical preconditions and all possible resources to push through its current interests by manipulating the public attitudes in its favour and seeding discord in Bulgarian society. This malicious influence affects the Armed Forces as well, and it my direct responsibility to make sure it get limited or disappears altogether in the future," Tagarev said. According to him, these tasks can be achieved with the help of anticipatory knowledge and skills in strategic communications. "We are currently in the process of creating a new model of strategic communications at the Defence Ministry and the Bulgarian Armed Forces. The new model does not envisage the establishment of new structures but the strengthening of the existing capacity for countering hybrid influence," the Minister noted.
The US Ambassador said that his country and Bulgaria have a long-standing and lasting strategic partnership. They are working together to defend their common interests in strategic communications. In his words, all allies in NATO, including the United States and Bulgaria, face the challenge of disproving the false narratives and informing society of the real security threats and the ways to overcome them. The Bulgarian government prioritizes strategic communications as a key element of the national security, he noted. Minister Tagarev's commitment to Monday's event sends a strong positive signal to everyone and demonstrates that strategic communications should be a supreme priority.
The training launched on Monday is only one step that the US and Bulgaria are undertaking together to increase their capacity. On September 25, the two countries' governments signed a memorandum of understanding on countering disinformation, Merten recalled.
The Strategic Communications training is the first in a series of trainings held with the assistance of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the US Embassy in Sofia and with US funding under the Foreign Military Financing programme. To be presented during the training are main approaches and techniques of strategic communications, the fight against disinformation and hybrid threats.
/RY/
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