“Bulgaria has a strong commitment to continue to enhance its role as a pillar of security and stability in the Balkans and the Black Sea region, through its constructive policy to develop modern defence capabilities that meet NATO standards,” said President Rumen Radev after talks in Sofia with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “We have a strong ambition to integrate our defence industry and science into NATO and EU projects,” President Radev added.

Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Bulgaria’s decision to increase its defence spending, and highlighted Bulgaria’s role in tracing the way to the Prespa agreement that laid the foundations of North Macedonia’s road to NATO membership.