Bulgaria's Foreign Minister: We Need New Fighter Jets

Bulgaria urgently needs to modernize its air force, in the light of the situation in Ukraine, said Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin. 

According to him, the country needs to reorganize its military air force and buy new type of fighter jets, in order to terminate its dependence on Russia for their technical maintenance. 

“The speed of the process depends on us and our partners, who must demonstrate if they can provide new fighter jets,” Vigenin said in the morning talkshow of the public broadcaster BNT. 

According to Vigenin, even if the Bulgarian air force ran out of flight resources, the country will not remain defenseless and will have the support of its military partners. 

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev urged for “more NATO” in the region. 

“We are certain, that NATO changed Bulgaria and the whole region for the better,” Plevneliev said at the opening of the two-day international conference “The Future of NATO” in Sofia. “Considering the crisis in Ukraine, the Alliance open door policy gains a whole new dimension. We need more NATO in Bulgaria, the Balkans and the Black Sea region.”