"This whole story is very sad. It is a symptom of weak statehood, and in the most difficult possible period after the Second World War, related to security and international order.
This is what former Defense Minister Velizar Shalamanov told BNR in commenting on the news that Nikolay Nenchev will be the temporary manager of our embassy in Kyiv. President Rumen Radev criticized the decision and called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to comply with the rules for appointing ambassadors.
According to him, in this case there is a dominance of personal relationships and a sharp opposition between institutions on essential issues.
"It is very likely that the person proposed in this agreement was unacceptable to the Ukrainian side," the former Minister of Defense suggested in an interview with the program "Above all". He reminded that Bulgaria is the only country in NATO whose proposal for ambassador to NATO was rejected by the Alliance. According to him, it is probably necessary to look for such reasons for the delay.
"The sharp contradiction between President Radev and the state policy determined by the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly, on the subject of the war in Ukraine, on Russian aggression, on whose subject is Crimea, actually creates a great risk that it will not be possible to be elected ambassador and there is likely to be pressure from the presidential institution – ambassador to be a person who defends the positions of the president, which are in complete contradiction with the national policy and with the policy of NATO and the EU", he commented.
Shalamanov pointed out another problem: "As for the ambassador to NATO, so now also for the ambassador to Ukraine – the two most key ambassadorial posts in this period of war – apparently something is wrong with the process. It is not possible for years that a competition cannot be held and young, prepared diplomats cannot be selected. Apparently this process is not working and the decision has been reached about a political appointment. /…/ It is logical, since we want to show a high level, since we want to show commitment, that it should be one of the last defense ministers. In my opinion, this is a normal decision".
In his words, all this is not a good tone and does not speak well for Bulgaria. According to him, this makes our country much weaker both internally and externally.
"The dispute is between the Prime Minister and the President. This argument does the President no credit with the qualifications he uses. There are so many accumulated personal relationships and they affect the security and defense of Bulgaria.
According to the former military minister, the procedures were followed. Bulgaria's interest is to have a strong, active, real ambassador there, Shalamanov was categorical.