All insinuations that you see the president sabotaging the modernization of the Bulgarian army are, at the very least, highly incorrect. I will not use other words. This was commented by the head of state Rumen Radev to journalists during his joint press conference with the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatovic.
According to Radev, NATO is strong in its will to adhere to, impose democratic principles and implement effective cooperation between all its members when it comes to peace and security. “The big challenge currently facing NATO is achieving capability and stability on the European continent, to have sufficient military capabilities, to have capabilities for defense and deterrence”, is his opinion.
He added: “I will use the opportunity to reject some speculations that are currently swirling around by people whose only job over the years has apparently been to call black and white. Namely the speculations that I am against building reliable defense capabilities in Europe and against the rearmament of the Bulgarian Army and the development of our defense industry. There is no politician in Bulgaria who has worked harder than me and insisted that we have a modernization of the Bulgarian Army, that we have a motivated personnel, that we have higher defense spending, that we have strong European capabilities by overcoming the fragmentation of the European defense industry”, the president pointed out.
Radev recalled the councils he convened on the topic since 2017 and his insistence on accelerating the modernization of the army and having more money for it. He also recalled the special council he convened for the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the European Union with the insistence that Bulgaria take a leading role in building a common European defense. He also stated that he was the first leader in Europe to bring the president of the European Defense Fund to Bulgaria, immediately after its formation. And he pointed out the meetings held then with the defense industry on the conditions for applying for European funds for the development of military science and the defense industry.
„So, at the very least, all these insinuations that you see the president sabotaging the modernization of the Bulgarian Army are, at the very least, highly incorrect. I will not use other words. Only two weeks ago was the analysis of the Bulgarian Army. I came out and said that we should move in the direction of 2.5%, initially, of the defense budget. And the next day, party leaders immediately attacked me with strong criticism that this could not be done. And now why didn't these people who criticize me criticize these party leaders then?”, he asked.
According to him, this was due to two truths that they “cannot swallow”.
”The first - what I claim - is that Europe cannot impose peace from a position of force. It is immoral for Europe to continue to push Ukraine to continue fighting in order to get, through war, to some position from which to impose peace from a position of force. Absolutely impossible. This is a rude, brutal clash with reality. This policy, I confirm once again, is leading Ukraine to a catastrophe, and Europe to a dead end. Because from now on, I repeat again, with such a policy the victims will only grow, we will have even more destruction and devastation in Ukraine and we will have even greater loss of territories. This is what they are leading us to. And that is why I appeal once again to Europe to support, to work in cooperation with the US, so that it can use this political will to have a ceasefire. From there, we will sit down at the table and with the tools of diplomacy, and with all possible mechanisms, we will seek a solution that will guarantee a just and sustainable peace. But now let's push Ukraine to continue this bloodshed. Ukraine will lose territories every day from now on,”, Radev also said.
“The second truth that they cannot swallow, or rather realize yet - this is a delusion of both Bulgarian society and the Bulgarian defense industry, that there will be 800 billion free financial resources to pour in as investments. We all want it to be there, but it is not there. There will be 150 billion euros in loans with the help of the European Investment Bank. Yes, it is positive that military projects are finally being allowed to be financed. But these are loans. The remaining money is imaginary. It remains to be calculated what free resources there are from EU funds and the Recovery and Resilience Plan," he explained, appealing to the government and all responsible institutions "to assess things very carefully."