The CEO of the Bulgarian military industry enterprise "Arsenal" AD and "Arsenal 2000" AD Eng. Hristo Ibushev on the new economic reality after Donald Trump introduced new tariffs.
The military plant in Kazanlak produces products for countries on almost all continents. The new tariffs that the US president has set are not expected to significantly affect the industry, but they will be a generator of tension, writes Nova TV.
“In reality, the part of our exports to the US is not that large, that is, these tariffs will not affect us that much. The truth is that they will actually create problems for many economies, and as is known, when there are problems in the economies, riots immediately start, wars begin“, he pointed out Ibushev.
“Especially for the defense industry, he will even give it a boost because of the conflicts. Until recently, all of us Europeans were quite naive to think that this peace, which had lasted 80 years, would last for another 180. The truth is that it turned out that there are enough people in the world who want to push things and want to change the world, even though it was extremely prosperous and peaceful. We lived in an incredible few decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and look, how much better we live now than then, right? There are people who want to change it, to break it for some reason“, he said.
Whether they will succeed in breaking it remains unclear. It is clear that Trump's tariffs woke up Europe. “In my opinion, Europe woke up quite quickly, it has a huge willingness and desire to take on the leadership role in the world again, because until now it somehow remained so. It was almost assumed that America and China run the world and we can't do anything. At the moment I see that at least here in the regional aspect Europe wants to take a dominant role and have its opinion and wishes heard, especially the European values of peace, for prosperity“, emphasized Ibushev.
One of the first announced steps in the EU is to increase the defense industry and armaments. “The defense industry is like any other, it is as adaptable as the market allows, as much as there is demand. In the end, it all comes down to how many contracts you have, what revenues and what resources. The truth is that the good thing about this industry is that it acts as a counterbalance to the civilian industry and many countries in the world that do not have a defense industry would very much like to have one. Europe has the traditions and actually has the people, the education and the industrial base, which is currently growing very seriously“, added the director.
A month ago, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov visited a large part of the enterprises of the Bulgarian military-industrial complex. “We managed to convince the government that Bulgaria actually can. It has a disproportionately large industry for its size, many traditions, it still has people and an industrial base and innovations are happening right now, they enter the level of artificial intelligence, electronics, drones, radars, satellites. Bulgaria is an extremely innovative country, I know the stereotypes, but it is actually quite a leader in many aspects of this industry and others“, explained Eng. Hristo Ibushev.
In the “Arsenal“ arms factory in recent years, they have invested over 100 million leva in new technologies. The war in Ukraine has largely helped stabilize the industry in the country. “As you know, Bulgaria is one of the main countries in Europe that helped Ukraine very seriously and of course, this means development in Bulgaria for everyone who supplied there. You see the record levels of export, because it was not only to Ukraine, other markets continued, most factories produce maybe double, triple the output they produced before. Revenues are good at a time of such a crisis, which is clearly coming“, he emphasized.
The tariffs introduced by the US are the moment of unification of business and government. “Just a difficult moment that I think will unite Europe and join us much more seriously with the European family“, Ibushev noted.