“Mr. Minister, yesterday you announced that you had made a decision to stop the weapons for Ukraine, which come from the warehouses of the Bulgarian army. My question is: were our partners in the European Union and NATO notified beforehand or did they know about this decision of yours in some other way?” This question was asked by the co-chairman of "Yes, Bulgaria" Ivaylo Mirchev during a blitz control in the parliamentary defense committee of the Minister of Defense Dimitar Stoyanov. He specified that his question was because the minister's words were quoted by news agencies and became world news. Therefore, the concern of "Democratic Bulgaria" is how this will affect Bulgaria's predictability as a partner in the European Union and NATO.
“I categorically do not believe that my statement yesterday will in one way or another lead to a change in the attitude towards Bulgaria by our partners. Bulgaria is a reliable partner in both NATO and the European Union. I categorically believe, I say again, that this will in no way affect the modernization processes and the projects that we currently plan, right, to introduce very intensively into our parliament, before service contracts under the SAFE mechanism. Our partners have not been notified, they do not need to be notified. Ultimately, this is a sovereign decision. And, by the way, I say again, our coalition “Progressive Bulgaria” had such a vision back in the pre-election period, when we categorically stated this thing”, Minister Stoyanov replied.
To a clarifying question from Ivaylo Mirchev, whether there was any activity on the Ukrainian side, whatever it was, towards the next package of military supplies, the Minister of Defense answered negatively. But he added that there was a request from the Ukrainian ambassador for an introductory meeting with the new team of the Ministry of Defense. However, the government has decided that all requests from embassies will go through the Foreign Ministry and then be directed to other departments. “I have not held such a meeting at the moment. By the way, I have not held a meeting with other ambassadors who have expressed requests for a meeting, for the simple reason that we were heavily engaged”, said Minister Dimitar Stoyanov.