site.btaUPDATED President Radev Calls on Europe to Support USA's Efforts to Find Peaceful Solution for Ukraine

Europe should support the USA's efforts to find a peaceful solution for Ukraine, President Rumen Radev urged on Tuesday. He was speaking at the Annual Chief of Defence Conference, held in Sofia on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Radev said we are witnessing an unprecedented change in the security environment in the world and in Europe and growing unpredictability. The head of State pointed out that there are different assessments of the war in Ukraine and different approaches to regulating this conflict by the US and European partners. The debate on the possible refocusing of the US from the Euro-Atlantic space towards the Pacific region is coming up, Radev noted. He reiterated his firm position against sending Bulgarian troops to Ukraine.

Regarding the deployment of Bulgarian servicepersons as part of a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, Radev told reporters that some politicians in Bulgaria pretend to be heroes and are ready to send soldiers to Ukraine on a peacekeeping mission without being absolutely aware of the nature of the peace agreements and the risks involved. According to the President, these politicians have never risked their own lives and will never defend any cause, not even to defend their country. They accumulate political dividends on the backs of the lives of others, Radev commented.

"Today, during the analysis of defence, we examined how Bulgaria will implement its regional participation in the new geopolitical reality," the head of State told reporters. According to him, it is clear that while so far Bulgaria has been relying on Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, from now on the country will have to think about Article 3, i.e. each country should build its own defence capacity in a national and coalition format. This poses many new challenges for Bulgaria's Armed Forces and for defence planning, Radev noted. He said that at the forum on Tuesday, they looked at what it means to plan Bulgaria's defence rationally in these new geopolitical realities, in what state the country is caught by what is happening around it.

"Regarding the doctrinal basis, I can say that both the National Security Strategy and the National Defence Strategy are no longer relevant," the President said. In his words, the Strategic Defence Review, which was never completed in its entirety, is already beyond the new realities and an urgent update is necessary. 

On military training for civilians, the President said that without a solid mobilization reserve, one cannot talk about success in major military operations. "The last conscription that we fired was in 2007, and now they are growing older than the age for military service, so the mobilization reserve is constantly shrinking and we should find some forms of initial military training, as happened in Poland, so that Bulgarians can defend their country in case of need," Radev said. He added that this process should start from school.

Asked about his opinion on a possible military alliance of EU Member States and European countries alternative to NATO, Radev said that even now there are doctrinal statements and structures for European defence, but they are not filled with the necessary content. This problem has been knocking at the door for a long time, but now there is a real sobering up and Europe is realising that it will have to take much more responsibility and burden for its own defence, the head of State said. In his view, this is an inevitable process that is part of Europe's strategic autonomy.