In the conclusions of the European leaders, which have already been agreed and should come out of this EU crisis council today - Russia is named as the perpetrator of the drone attacks in the Black Sea.
This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by Elena Poptodorova, former Ambassador of Bulgaria to the US.
"Despite the hesitation of the Bulgarian government and the evasive and allegorical mentions of Russia, the conclusions of the European Council, which means also in Bulgaria's position, already include the specific designation of Russia as the perpetrator of all these attacks," she commented. And she added:
"Apparently again from the outside, through Brussels, the government has decided that there is already evidence, because I quote you almost verbatim the content of this text from the conclusions that have been agreed - Russia is again turning food into weapons. All types of attacks that Russia is carrying out in the Black Sea area are listed - a complete list of all sabotage aggressive actions that Russia has carried out in recent months, but including in the previous period of the war. We now have an official - black and white - designation of Russia as the main culprit. The conclusions also state that this is a serious violation of international law. In these conclusions, the leaders call for the immediate restoration of the safe passage of ships through the Black Sea".
According to her, the moratorium on attacks on ships in the Black Sea, for which Bulgaria and Romania will request European support, is a tool, but the question is how effective it will be. Russia can safely disregard it, Poptodorova pointed out in the program "Above All".
According to her, the benefit is that finally the three Black Sea countries - NATO members - stand together - Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.
"Again, Romania is a few steps ahead of us," she noted and expressed her opinion that there is no need to wait, but we need to be more energetic.
"The Bulgarian government has already entered this channel of interaction with Romania and Turkey. Today, an extraordinary crisis meeting of NATO is taking place to discuss a response to these drone strikes on merchant ships in the Black Sea. Bulgaria and Romania are the occasion. That is why it was very useful that Rutte invited the two prime ministers of Bulgaria and Romania to this meeting. Obviously, joint actions are being agreed upon. There is even talk of creating a new security center in the Black Sea, which will be equipped and supported by NATO. This is a very elegant suggestion that the protection, security, defense on NATO's eastern flank will be strengthened, but this also means much more intensive combat training of capabilities.
According to her, NATO is starting to prepare to strengthen capabilities on the coast. Obviously, there is further refinement of the way in which the capabilities and efforts of the three countries will be combined, Poptodorova believes. She pointed out that we have a different level of capabilities, with Bulgaria being the last of the three countries.
"This contains a clear warning that NATO and, accordingly, the three NATO countries on the Black Sea coast are in a political and military future readiness to defend ourselves by all means".
The activation of Article 4 is also a warning, and this is what our government is running away from and is afraid of - lest it be perceived almost as a militant position of Bulgaria against Russia, Elena Poptodorova was categorical. According to her, Article 4 is very useful:
"It should be activated, including as an exclamation mark to the aggressor that there is a collective ability to protect our interests, not only Ukrainian interests. I am very sorry that we did not have the courage to say that we want to activate it. It is possible that this can be discussed together with Romania and Turkey. This is not some sacred cow or something scary that should not be touched, on the contrary - it is a tool and it is independent, it does not necessarily lead to the most severe Article 5".
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