Twenty-two years after joining NATO, Bulgaria is reporting a historic peak in financing its armed forces. The country's military budget reached nearly 5 billion leva, clearly exceeding the Alliance's minimum requirements against the backdrop of large-scale technological transformation and the launch of key infrastructure projects.
In the overview program “The Great Consequences“ on Bulgaria ON AIR television, Defense Minister Atanas Zapryanov made a retrospective of the country's path from the first expectations in the 1990s to today's reality. He emphasized the scale of the changes the Bulgarian Army has undergone to achieve interoperability with its allies.
"Regarding the army, we have gone through a very difficult and painful path, because the Bulgarian Armed Forces were reduced," said Atanas Zapryanov. The minister recalled that in 1989 the size of the armed forces was 120 thousand people, while by the time of the actual entry into NATO in 2004, the country already had a reformed 45 thousand-strong army.
Against the backdrop of the heightened geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East and speculation about the role of the pact, the minister was categorical about the country's position.
"Let's talk about our membership in NATO as a guarantor of our national security, and not, as some are trying to claim, that NATO is almost involved in these wars," emphasized Atanas Zapryanov.
The words of the Minister of Defense are directly reflected in the official financial statistics of the Alliance. According to the annual report of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, presented a few days ago, Bulgaria is establishing itself as an extremely reliable partner.
In 2025, Bulgaria spent 2.14 percent of its gross domestic product on defense, which is equivalent to an impressive $2.755 billion. For comparison, a decade earlier (in 2014) this percentage was only 1.31.
More important than the total amount, however, is the way in which the funds are spent. The report reveals that over 28.4 percent of Bulgaria's entire military budget is specifically allocated to the acquisition of new equipment. This is significantly above the minimum threshold of 20 percent required by NATO and proves that the country is in a peak phase of rearmament.