"The increase in military spending will be carried out smoothly and it should not affect the growth of the economies in any way. Without economic growth, only militarization of budgets will not achieve the necessary effect".
This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by Defense Minister Atanas Zapryanov after the NATO summit in The Hague, at which the leaders of the Alliance countries adopted a declaration committing to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.
"Financial stability in the country will remain, the government program will be implemented as adopted. And the increased efforts in the field of our defense spending for modernization will come from the European instruments, which are very basic", he explained and added:
"These are favorable conditions for us to now be able to prepare our request to the EC for minimum and maximum spending under the European Security Instrument and then prepare a national plan".
The Defense Minister described the meeting in The Hague as historic:
"Not only because it reaffirmed the role of Art. 5 - America and Canada remain committed to the security and defense of Europe, not only because military spending is increasing to 5% of GDP by 2035, of which 3.5% for military capabilities and the rest for resilience, mobility and infrastructure, but the third element is that these financial resources will allow a significant increase in the military capabilities of the Alliance and the plans that we have for defense, including Bulgaria, will become realistically provided with real military capabilities.
According to Zapryanov, Bulgaria will begin a strategic review of our armed forces in order to make plans on how to achieve this increase in our national capabilities.
"Bulgaria found itself in a favorable position. The National Assembly adopted the defense investment program until 2032. There are still some projects that have not started, but we are ready for this. The main projects have already been defined and voted on by the Bulgarian Parliament, which makes the work of our government easier. The second favorable condition is the EC's decision to create the European Security Instrument and investments of 150 billion euros for real defense capabilities and industries plus another 650 billion euros for industrial development," he commented.
According to him, Europe's industrial defense effort comes at a very opportune moment for the modernization of our armed forces.
In his words, these 1.5%, which are about 3 billion leva, will be investments in the economy. We are preparing to hold an industrial day soon, at which a memorandum of cooperation with Bulgarian companies will be signed, the minister pointed out.
The Strykers will be assembled in Bulgaria, he reminded and added: "We are fighting for the ammunition to be produced in Bulgaria". According to him, economic growth can be achieved by spending money wisely on the development of the defense complex.
"The Bulgarian army has always been a client of our defense industry. Due to the dramatic reduction in the number of our armed forces, our national arms market is very narrow. Our companies will have to transform and innovate. All NATO member states are modernizing their weapons systems. We are fighting for our industrial defense enterprises to obtain the relevant licenses and certificates in order to produce not only for us, but according to NATO standards, ammunition and other defense equipment that will allow them to appear on the European defense market.
The goal of the EC is to create a common European defense market, Minister Zapryanov pointed out, specifying that we will move towards a broader industrial cooperation.
"The countries must unite for joint production, i.e. our weapons industries must integrate.".
The pilots for the Bulgarian F-16 aircraft will be trained in the USA, said the Defense Minister. He pointed out that we already have 5 trained pilots, and we expect 3 more to graduate.
The second fighter jet that arrived in Bulgaria is undergoing technical acceptance, commented Atanas Zapryanov. "We will receive the next 4 aircraft by the end of September and the last 2 by the end of the year", he announced.
According to the minister, after the salary increase, the number of candidates for the army has increased. Decent pay gives its result, he was categorical. And he expressed the expectation that military schools will accept 100% of their candidates as officers and cadets. According to him, however, this is only one step. We need to think even more about the social benefits and the attractiveness and career development of military personnel, Zapryanov believes.
Young people want new equipment, he was categorical. According to him, this is the way - modernization of the army.
The US operation against Iran's nuclear facilities confirmed that conventional means have not lost their importance, but on the contrary, the Minister of Defense expressed his opinion. According to him, we must have a comprehensive approach to modern operations.
"At the national level, the Council of Ministers made a decision and we are creating an innovation center in order to be able to assist companies that are interested in creating innovative products in defense. /.../ The activities of companies are to be coordinated in Bulgaria with the aim of creating Bulgarian technological solutions that will be used by our armed forces and the allies".
Atanas Zapryanov emphasized that all armies have a problem with staffing. We do not believe that mandatory military service should be introduced, he noted.
"Now we are in a situation where we have many candidates, but we can only hire 1,000 people this year, because the budget for personnel expenses does not allow us to hire more. If recruitment costs increase next year, we can quickly - in 2-3 years, with this interest in military service, fill 90% of our armed forces".