The defense ministers of Bulgaria and Greece meet in Sofia

The defense ministers of Bulgaria and Greece will meet in Sofia. Nikos Dendias will also meet with Acting Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov.

Just a few days ago, the "Patriot" battery was deployed in Northern Greece to provide missile defense for a large part of Bulgaria's territory. On Wednesday, the Bulgarian Acting Defense Minister Atanas Zapryanov said that it is already covering the country:

"And we are actually starting to implement all these things that we have deployed - both aviation and the inclusion of the "Patriot" battery on duty; it is already on duty, 16 hours after they announced it, and we have full cover. We have also made the appropriate preparations for our air defense system."

A pair of F-16 fighter jets will be deployed at an airport in northern Greece with the exclusive task of providing additional protection to Bulgaria. This, Zapryanov explained on Wednesday, is happening under an agreement on cross-border operations:

"So there is no problem and both our aircraft and the Greek ones can patrol together. Two officers from the Greek armed forces will be permanently deployed in our air defense system for coordination between the two countries."

Last year, Greek media reported that Bulgaria was interested in purchasing over 100 Greek "Centaur" anti-drone systems, the financing for which will come from the European defense financing mechanism SAFE.