site.btaBulgarian Defence Minister Participates in Meeting of Bucharest Nine Leaders in Vilnius

Bulgaria’s Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov has taken part in a meeting of the Bucharest Nine leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania. For the first time, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden were invited to participate, the Ministry’s press service said on Monday.

The Vilnius meeting took place ahead of the NATO summit scheduled for June 24-25 in The Hague, where important decisions regarding the Alliance’s further transformation are expected. The discussions focused on defence spending, NATO’s deterrence and defence capabilities, industrial capacity, and transatlantic cooperation. A separate session with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy focused on long-term support for Ukraine. The Hague Summit aims to build on previous decisions made at the Madrid, Vilnius, and Washington summits to strengthen and better prepare the Alliance. Increased defence spending will be crucial to implementing new defence plans and ensuring the necessary deterrence and collective defence capabilities. Enhancing both national and Alliance readiness requires a comprehensive whole-of-government approach.

Minister Zapryanov said that at the NATO Summit in The Hague, the Alliance should reaffirm its role as the primary guarantor of collective security in the Euro-Atlantic region. He stressed the importance of the transatlantic link in ensuring deterrence, defence, and counter-terrorism capabilities suited to today’s challenges.

As to defence spending, Zapryanov stressed the need not only for increased resources but also for their more effective use, aligned with security and defence priorities. Bulgaria will strive to use EU mechanisms to create more fiscal space for defence investments while maintaining a conservative financial policy, especially considering its expected accession to the euro area.

“We see potential in new EU defence initiatives that complement efforts by the Alliance and value industrial cooperation with the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Ukraine, and partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” Minister Zapryanov said.

The Bucharest Nine is a multilateral forum for consultation and dialogue on security issues, comprising nine NATO member states on the Alliance’s eastern flank: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. This format serves as a platform for discussing and coordinating common approaches and positions to be presented as part of NATO's work, the press release said.