This week NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen met for talks in Sofia with the president, the PM and the ministers of defense and of foreign affairs of Bulgaria. As expected, the guest urged the country to rearm its Air Force with western fighters. The Russian fighters are incompatible with NATO aircraft and their maintenance and upgrading is fully dependent on the Russian company RSK MiG. The Bulgarian officials had expressed propensity for such a step in the days preceding the visit, however, the big question is who is going to pay the bill. NATO requires from its allies to allocate 2% of their GDP to defense while Bulgaria has for the time being not exceeded 1.5%. For this reason, apart from the option of obtaining secondhand machines, this country has also been eyeing the opportunity for joint purchases with other countries of Eastern Europe. The government is expected to make up its mind by mid-2014.

Rasmussen has not ruled out a possible deployment of NATO military units and equipment to Bulgaria and has specified that this would happen after the Alliance has updated its defense plans. The update is due in the coming days. In the context of discussions of the forthcoming NATO summit the Bulgarian side has voiced firm support for an invitation for accession to be extended to Montenegro.

Unsurprisingly, central to the talks was the development of the crisis in Ukraine. In this regard the Bulgarian side reiterated its position that the only ways for the settlement of the crisis include political dialogue and diplomatic steps.

The visit of the NATO Secretary General was closely followed by the Russian side. On the day of talks Moscow’s Ambassador in Sofia Yuri Isakov denied claims that Russian aircraft were carrying emergency flights near the Bulgarian airspace. He also made a strong point that tensions over the crisis in Ukraine have not been transferred to Russia-Bulgaria relations. To confirm this he said that the visit of the Chairperson of the Russian Duma to Bulgaria planned for early May had not been canceled and added there was no change in plans for a visit of the President of the Bulgarian Parliament to Russia. A week ago, the ambassador agreed with PM Oresharski on a meeting of the Joint Bulgarian-Russian Commission to be held in June.

English Daniela Konstantinova