Europe must increase its defence potential, Defence Minister Todor Tagarev said on the air of the Bulgarian National Radio while speaking about the topics discussed at the Munich Security Conference, which he attended last week. The European pillar in NATO must be strengthened and reinforced, he stressed, adding that all countries should spend more on defence. He acknowledged that two-thirds of countries already do, but there are EU countries that have not reached 2% of spending. Some of these countries are spending very large amounts of money to help Ukraine, which is also an important element of the strategy to ensure our security," Tagarev said.

Referring to former US President Donald Trump's words that he will not defend NATO allies that do not spend enough on defence and will even encourage Russia to attack them because they cannot rely on the solidarity of Article 5 of the Collective Defence Treaty, Todor Tagarev said that the Alliance will not cede a single square inch of territory to any aggressor.

Commenting on the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the minister said it was "utter ruthlessness on the part of this regime. The news of Alexei Navalny's death has been confirmed. The fact is that the Kremlin regime has done this".