Bulgarian Minister of Defense Todor Tagarev said the necessary infrastructure work will be started in order to place up to 5 thousand NATO troops in the country, if necessary,
Tagarev made a statement on the private television channel BTV.
Commenting on his recently ended visit to the United States, Tagarev said that the cost of NATO objects and related infrastructure that will be created in Bulgaria will be about 6 billion euros.
According to him, in addition to the objects that will be prepared for the needs of NATO personnel, the construction of roads and railways and other infrastructure work is supposed.
explaining that the necessary financing will be carried out at the expense of various funds of the United States, NATO and the European Union (EU), Tagarev noted the following:
“Corresponding infrastructure work will also include the construction of road and railways. Pipelines, nodes of materials and warehouses for the rapid deployment of allied troops will also be built on the territory of Bulgaria. We are working on all these issues.”
– We do not have a clear schedule
Speaking about safety measures taken within the framework of NATO, he clarified:
“all (multinational) fighting groups in the countries of the eastern NATO flank is planned to be converted into brigade combat groups. The personnel of each of these groups, which will be converted from battalions to the brigades, can be up to 5 thousand people. This will happen as necessary. , at the moment, we do not have a clear schedule. We must be prepared to provide conditions to ensure this. “
Tagarev recalled that Bulgaria purchased 200 armored military vehicles such as “Stayker” in the United States worth about 1.25 billion euros, and said that they would be put to the country in the period 2025-2028.
The minister explained that the country will become a regional center for maintenance and repair of these machines, for which the capacities of terem weapons factories in Veliko-Tarnovo will be used.