site.btaBulgaria to Host NATO Crisis Response Exercise in 2025

Bulgaria will host a NATO crisis response exercise next year. This transpired as the head of the Interior Ministry's General Directorate for Fire Safety and Population Protection, Chief Commissioner Alexander Dzhartov, was speaking to Bulgarian journalists at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

Dzhartov and NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Operations, Burcu San, signed Wednesday a statement of intent for the upcoming exercise. This is a first step, it will be a very serious exercise in terms of the envisaged scale of over 1,000 participants, the Chief Commissioner specified. He said most of the alliance countries will send their personnel to participate.

"Bulgaria has recently experienced difficulties in suppressing forest fires and now much of Europe is struggling to cope with the effects of floods. We need to be better prepared in advance," Dzhartov said. Next year's exercise will be in Montana and will last from September 8 to 12, he explained.

Burcu San thanked Bulgaria for hosting this exercise. She said the exercise will pay attention to the interaction between civilian and military rescue teams. This exercise is an example of Bulgaria's valuable contribution to NATO, she added.

The exercise is organised by NATO's Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre. Established in 1998, the Centre receives more than 20 requests for assistance from the Alliance countries annually.