Republican frontrunner and former US president Donald Trump’s recent comments about not protecting NATO countries that do not meet their spending commitments are “completely understandable”, Bulgarian Defence Minister Todor Tagarev told journalists in Brussels on Thursday, saying that NATO member states that have made commitments should respect them.
Trump, who is currently gearing up for a likely rematch with US President Joe Biden in September, made comments about NATO defence spending that prompted European leaders to call out the controversial American figure – though Tagarev said he understood such remarks.
“Mr. Trump is on an election campaign, and his position is completely understandable. All countries made such a commitment already at the summit in 2014, that is, 10 years ago, and the fact that some have not yet achieved this 2% (of GDP for defence) is disturbing. We must all shoulder the burden together,” Tagarev told Bulgarian journalists in Brussels on Wednesday.
While Trump’s comments prompted some European politicians to renew calls for a European army, Bulgaria’s defence minister has made the call “not to step into the separation of Europe from North America”.
However, just a day ago NATO released spending figures showing that a record 18 NATO countries, including European allies and Canada, plan to meet NATO’s spending target of 2% of national GDP this year.
“Bulgaria is among these countries. We are at 2% defence spending with the planned 2024 state budget and will spend that much in each of the following years until 2032. About a third of this budget is for investing in new combat capabilities, which is received quite well by our allies,” Tagarev pointed out.
“Not even one square centimetre of NATO territory will be given to an aggressor country”, he added.
“The environment is different. Putin’s aggressive policy against Georgia and Ukraine no longer surprises us. The large-scale aggression against Ukraine shows us that we must all prepare together,” Tagarev also said.
Bulgaria has been a major purchaser of US military equipment over the past four years. Bulgaria’s biggest purchase is 16 new F-16 Block 70 fighter jets for $2.3 billion, followed by an order for nearly 200 Stryker armoured vehicles from the US for $1.3 billion. The only European company involved in Bulgaria’s major military modernisation project is Germany’s Lürssen, which is building two advanced patrol vessels.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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