Commenting on the upcoming meeting of the Consultative Council on National Security, scheduled for 15 February, which is to discuss issues regarding the risks and threats to the national security of Bulgaria and the state of the armed forces, President Rumen Radev stated that the Ukraine-Russia crisis poses a threat to the security of the whole of Europe. According to the President, this is a crisis of global dimensions and the threat it poses is not only to Bulgaria or to the region. Rumen Radev pointed out that the dialogue is taking place at the highest level – between the US and Russia, NATO and Russia, the EU and Russia, and that Bulgaria is part of the efforts to reduce the tension. “We must all work in such a way as to avoid a military solution to this crisis, a solution can be sought by diplomatic means and all efforts are being invested here,” the Bulgarian head of state said.

Today the President got acquainted with the analysis of the state and the training of the armed forces in 2021, presented by Chief of Defence, Admiral Emil Eftimov. In Rumen Radev’s words, the biggest threat to our national security is to neglect the problems of the armed forces and our commitments as allies.

“We must break with this kind of attitude once and for all – to only think of the army from crisis to crisis, from disaster to disaster,” the President said and added that “the commitments of the country’s administration to the development of the armed forces must be sustained and targeted.” President Radev pointed out that these commitments must not be limited to the one-time acts of acquiring new equipment and armaments. Modernization is an ongoing process of building defence capabilities with a focus most of all on the people in the army, on new technologies and innovations, the Bulgarian head of state said.

“The declaration by the new government that the guarantees of our national security will be built on the basis of the constitutional obligations of the Bulgarian army needs to be backed by clear commitments, by a clear vision and support for the precise way we are going to develop our armed forces and provide for them,” President Radev said.