Nikolay Nenchev

As many as 110 Bulgarian military personnel are due to head to Afghanistan on Thursday to be part of Resolute Support, NATO's new mission in the country.

Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev will attend the departure ceremony in the town of Karlovo, in Central Bulgaria, to wish them good luck.

Risks and threats to the national, regional and global security on the Balkan Peninsula and in the Black Sea region are on the agenda of an international conference that begins Thursday.

Participants are to discuss developments in Ukraine and the offensive of Islamic State (IS) and also their impact on Bulgaria and its neighbors.

Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) Gen Philip Breedlove is on a two-day visit to Bulgaria on Wednesday and Thursday.

Breedlove is due to meet newly-appointed Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev and Vice Admiral Rumen Nikolov, who became Chief of Defense in June.

He is to lay wreath at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier in Bulgaria's capital Sofia.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov appointed a total of fifteen ministers on Tuesday, the government's press office says.

Names have been proposed by ministers themselves, with Borisov having only the final say, under the coalition agreement he struck as leader of conservative GERB with the Reformist Bloc (RB) last week.

Nikolay Nenchev, who took over as Bulgaria's Defense Minister on Friday, said he had observed many instances of wrongdoings at his institution.

On Sunday he voiced his concerns that, according to estimates he has been made familiar with, about BGN 2 B have been drained out "somewhere" within ten years.