More NATO countries are to join the battle group in Bulgaria, Defence Minister Dragomir Zakov announced after the NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels. Sofia has an arrangement with Italy for it to take the command of the battle group as a framework nation.  

“Today I talked to the Italian minister, the procedure in their country is going ahead pending consideration in parliament, and that means that by the summer of this year we shall have a so-called force generation conference, i.e. there will be more countries joining the battle group. At the moment there is interest by Greece, we also have American, British contingents which are already working with our forces at Novo Selo, there is interest by countries from the region as well,” Minister Zakov said.