British Armed Forces Minister is on a visit to Bulgaria

Bulgaria’s caretaker Minister of Defence, Atanas Zapryanov, and the Minister for the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Leo Doherty, on May 9, discussed the opportunities for joint allied counteraction to contemporary risks and threats.

The current security agenda in the Black Sea region, as well as the priorities in Bulgaria's defence policy and the prospects for the development of bilateral defence cooperation were also topics of the meeting in Sofia.

Deputy Minister of Defence Radostin Iliev and UK Ambassador to Bulgaria H.E. Rob Dixon.

In the light of the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO and the 20th anniversary of Bulgaria’s accession to the Alliance, issues related to the future of the organization and expectations from the upcoming NATO Summit in Washington were discussed.

Caretaker Minister Zapryanov briefed Minister Doherty on the priorities of the Ministry of Defence, the projects for the modernisation of the Bulgarian army and the Euro-Atlantic goals of our country for collective defence capabilities. They also discussed the actions taken to overcome the shortage of personnel in the Armed Forces. Minister Zapryanov focused on the readiness to complete the Strategic Defence Policy Review and to prepare a White Paper and legislative changes.

Minister Doherty highly appreciated the bilateral relations and expressed the readiness of the UK to strengthen cooperation in the field of defence. He underlined the UK's particular concern about the war in Ukraine and its strong support for measures to strengthen deterrence and defence capabilities across NATO's Eastern flank, including in the Black Sea.

The two also discussed the progress made in building capabilities in countering disinformation, cyber defence and countering hybrid threats.

At the subsequent meeting with the Chief of Defence Admiral Emil Eftimov, the military aspects of the bilateral relations were discussed, as well as the opportunities for enhancing cooperation between the Armed Forces of the two countries.

Admiral Eftimov said that as allies Bulgaria and the United Kingdom have a key partnership aimed at overcoming common security challenges and contributing to the modernisation of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. He briefed Minister Doherty on the efforts Bulgaria is making on the planned establishment and provision of multinational formations on Bulgarian territory to strengthen the Eastern flank of the Alliance.

Admiral Eftimov stressed that in the current complex security environment no country can cope with the current security challenges alone. "For this reason, we are convinced that Alliance membership and defence cooperation are the main pillars that underpin the modernisation of our armed forces and guarantee national security. Our NATO membership is a catalyst for the development of modern defence capabilities to be adequate to the future multi-domain operational environment," the Chief of Defence said.