Bulgaria will not send military forces to the Red Sea

Bulgaria will neither send military forces nor allocate funds to the Red Sea region to ensure safety of navigation, this is how Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov explained the words of the defence minister Todor Tagarev from a few weeks ago.

"What Minister Tagarev meant - I don't know to what extent it was understood, was possibly to send one or two officers to coordination centres, unfortunately, it was interpreted in a wrong way. What I can state categorically is that there was no Bulgarian involvement whatsoever in the strikes against the Houthis in the Red Sea. And, also, there was never any discussion about sending troops or ships, there was simply no such discussion," PM Denkov dded.

Two Bulgarian sailors remain in Houthi captivity, but efforts are underway to release them.

"There are two Bulgarian sailors, the captain and the mate, the crews have been pulled out, the difficulty there comes from - you know - the rules of the sea - the captain and the mate are the last ones to leave the ship, if they decide to leave the ship, they can probably do it immediately, but it would be against the rules, so it's an issue that is being discussed, there is contact with them periodically and with the people who are holding them, we hope this will give a positive result," Denkov said.

Talks on the rotation start today, but names and changes will not be discussed. The Prime Minister clarified that the idea of Assen Vassilev being Deputy Prime Minister came from GERB.