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President Radev: After decades of focusing on counter-terrorism and peace-building away from our region, NATO is returning to its core mission of being a guarantor of the sovereignty and security of its member states

It is important for Bulgaria to integrate its defence industry into NATO's leading technological and production projects, the head of State says in Madrid

After decades of focusing on fighting terrorism and consolidating peace away from our region, NATO is now returning to its core mission of being the guarantor of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of its member states. This is what President Rumen Radev told journalists before the ceremony of officially welcoming the heads of state and government participating in the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain. The Bulgarian head of State is leading our delegation to take part in the top-level international forum of the Alliance.

This means increased responsibility and unity, which we will demonstrate at the summit so as to show our responsibility towards collective defence and the security of each country, the President said. He added that this is also linked to the increased ambitions of the Alliance and requires more resources both in terms of national investment and overall defence spending.

The president noted that the NATO summit comes at a crucial moment with a radically changed strategic security environment as a result of Russian aggression in Ukraine and increased competition between the main strategic players on the global stage. Heads of state and government will adopt a new NATO Strategic Concept that will define the security threats and risks as well as the new political and military tasks facing the Alliance. The new security environment requires new approaches and solutions to ensure that the war in Ukraine does not expand its territorial reach, Rumen Radev said.

Referring to the discussions on NATO's new Strategic Concept, the head of State noted that this country has been actively involved in terms of, first of all, creating new, adequate defence capabilities, increasing the logistic capacity of energy and transport connectivity with skilful and effective use of the Alliance's common funds. A highlight of the high-level forum will be the activities of the Defence Innovation Accelerator and the NATO Innovation Fund, for the establishment of which Bulgaria was among the initiators in 2019. At that summit President Radev defended the position that the Alliance should be an alliance of partners that together ensure their security and develop high technologies and military equipment.

It is of strategic importance for us not only to implement leading technological solutions in building our own defence capabilities, but also to integrate our defence industry and defence science into NATO's leading technological and production projects. I have been calling for this for a long time, because it is crucial for bridging the divide between producer and consumer countries of defence products and services.

The head of state also pointed out that NATO is also expected to discuss issues of overcoming the secondary effects of the war in Ukraine, including the global threat to food security and the resulting new waves of migration. A formal invitation to Sweden and Finland to join the Alliance is also expected.

Regarding the strengthening of the Eastern flank, President Radev noted that decisions have yet to be taken on the long-term adaptation of defence and deterrence capabilities. At this meeting, we will only consider at a high political level the potential for raising the multinational battle groups to the brigade rank, but the actual operational decisions on this approach are yet to be considered at the military-political level, the President clarified.

Asked about the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Bulgaria, the President said he did not have the necessary information to discuss the issue. I hope that the outgoing prime minister has taken this decision on the basis of solid and reliable information and has thought it through well both in terms of scale and consequences, Rumen Radev added.