The agreement with Ukraine is of a purely political nature. It contains commitments that we have already made. This opinion was expressed in “Crossroads” by former Minister of Defense Todor Tagarev, commenting on the Agreement on Cooperation with Ukraine in the Field of Security and Defense for the Next Ten Years, which caused mixed reactions in the National Assembly.
“The National Assembly and several cabinets have consistently made decisions to provide assistance to Ukraine and to develop cooperation. Starting with the Declaration of the Parliament, when President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Sofia last summer, going through our country's accession to the G7 Declaration, which was announced at the NATO Summit in Vilnius, and our cabinet subsequently decided to sign it. And the current agreement is very similar to this declaration. We also have the ratification of the Treaty on Cooperation and Provision of Military Assistance to Ukraine. We have already made many decisions. And a few months ago, the Council of Ministers made a decision to launch negotiations on this agreement, and three weeks ago the cabinet approved it," Tagarev recalled.
According to him, now it turns out that the Council of Ministers has approved the agreement and authorized Dimitar Glavchev to sign it. “And since it is international, there may be an interpretation that it may need subsequent ratification by the National Assembly. But I do not see why it should be ratified, since it is almost entirely political in nature. It confirms the interests of both sides in cooperation - commitments that Bulgaria has already made. There are very few things in it. The only completely new thing is that we will support the search for peaceful solutions to this war according to Ukraine's position. That is, we will not try to impose conditions on Kiev, either alone or with someone else, to end the hostilities. We will support it in ending the war in the way it has determined," the former defense minister explained.
And he added: "There are perhaps more explicit things in the document. For example, that Russia - as an aggressor country and having committed numerous war crimes, must bear its responsibility according to international law. We support the establishment of a war crimes tribunal that will hold Moscow accountable for these crimes. And the other thing is that Russia must pay for the damages it has caused as an aggressor. These are the new things. From a military point of view, there is practically nothing new.
Tagarev specified that Ukraine is making a commitment to us - to ensure teaching of the Bulgarian language in programs in its state schools. And he was again categorical that the commitments made in the agreement are entirely of a political nature. "There is nothing specific there. For these decisions for the future - we already have all the other documents up to this point. I will give an example - it does not state that we will train 500 Ukrainian servicemen. There is no such commitment inside. There is a condition that we will join in the training of Ukrainian servicemen. Something that we are doing anyway,", he emphasized.