Bulgaria should be proud to have done this and to have stood by an ally, to have taken a step forward and been ready to do something that some in the Alliance were not ready to do. This was stated by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Alexis Grinkevich, on bTV.
"We have potential adversaries all over the world who are working together in ways that we would never have imagined a few years ago. This includes China, North Korea, Iran and, of course, the Russian Federation. And we see this in miniature in Ukraine, where Russia could not have continued this war without Chinese funding, as well as without dual-use components that come from China and feed its industrial base. We've already seen North Korean soldiers fighting on the border between Ukraine and Russia. And we expect to see more of that. We're seeing Shahed drones being used by the Russians. So that level of cooperation creates a real challenge for us from a global military perspective. And I would say there's an increasing risk that we'll find ourselves facing multiple crises in multiple regions of the world happening at the same time. And that's one of the reasons why it's so important to build a stronger European pillar of NATO and move towards the concept of NATO 3.0, where a stronger Europe leads to a stronger Alliance. Because the United States simply does not have the capacity to do everything on its own, anywhere, anytime," Grinkevich said.
According to him, the biggest threat is Russia because of the fact that it is ready to use force, which has already been seen for several years in Ukraine.
He explained that at the summit in Ankara next week, the progress that NATO has made since the historic commitment to 5% defense spending will be assessed. Grinkevich added that most countries have a realistic plan on how to reach this level of spending.
"And Bulgaria has great potential to use its defense industry to help meet some of the requirements for this spending and to achieve its capabilities goals to fulfill the plans that we have for defense, including here, on the southeastern flank of the Alliance," he emphasized.
"One of the ideas, if I may put it that way, of the American military presence in Europe is that Europe can serve as a platform for projecting power for the United States, from where we can do good globally and solve real problems - whether it's ensuring that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, which is President Trump's number one priority, or ensuring that terrorists don't get out of Africa. The ability to use the bases that we have in Europe for these purposes is extremely important. And I would encourage Bulgaria's political leaders, when they meet with President Trump next week in Ankara, to emphasize the support they have provided for this operation. Bulgaria should be proud to have done this and to have stood by an ally, to have stepped up and been willing to do something that some in the Alliance were not willing to do," the commander of United States forces in Europe said of the presence of American warplanes at Sofia airport.
He explained that tanker aircraft are extremely important.
"We build a kind of bridge of tanker aircraft whenever we project force. So there are a number of bases in Europe and over the Atlantic that are needed - whether we are moving fighters to target a country in the Central Command area and then to the Middle East for deployment. Things like that - the logistical transfer of capabilities to the Middle East in this case, but it could be to any point - are extremely important to us. It is extremely important to have that access," he said.
Grinkevich stated categorically that there were no combat operations that were launched from Bulgaria.