DEFENCE Minister Nikolai Svinarov returned from a three-day visit to the United States with a series of announcements.
Apart from attending the 53rd annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 2 in Washington DC, Svinarov had meetings with US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld and members of the US congress as well as representatives of the department of state and the national security council.
At the meetings various matters were discussed, including US military bases in Bulgaria, the repayments of the Iraqi debt to Bulgaria and the future involvement of the country in the US-led coalition.
“Bulgaria can rely on US assistance along three lines, the first of which relates to the restoration of the Iraqi debt to this country on the part of the US private financial sector,” Svinarov said on his return from the US.
Increasing the amounts of US funds for foreign military financing and US participation in Bulgarian projects for army modernisation were the other two areas of US financial assistance noted by Svinarov. He said the parameters of the US aid for the Bulgarian army would be known in March.
Regarding the US military bases in Bulgaria, Svinarov said the US president has already made a decision in principle on the matter.
“The hearings in the US senate and house of representatives are expected to end by March 15,” Svinarov said.
“In my meetings with secretary of defense Rumsfeld and Stephen Hadley, assistant to the president for national security affairs, I found that Bulgaria is already being considered as a country worthy of political reliance.”
According to Svinarov, the Bulgarian national decision about the contingent in Iraq will most probably be taken also in March.
Svinarov said that it was unlikely that an Iraqi government with which Bulgaria could hold talks would be constituted before March.
“The trend of developments of the operation in Iraq shows that a Bulgarian military presence in the form in which we are now participating in the operation would not be necessary after the end of 2005,” Svinarov said.
He said that this meant that Bulgarian involvement in Iraq after the end of 2005 could be in any other form for Iraq’s reconstruction. but not a military presence.
He said that his statement outlined parameters and did not predetermine the Bulgarian decision.
According to Svinarov, without building local forces able to overcome the existing opposition in Iraq, it was not possible to speak about the departure of the coalition forces.
Apart from attending the 53rd annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 2 in Washington DC, Svinarov had meetings with US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld and members of the US congress as well as representatives of the department of state and the national security council.
At the meetings various matters were discussed, including US military bases in Bulgaria, the repayments of the Iraqi debt to Bulgaria and the future involvement of the country in the US-led coalition.
“Bulgaria can rely on US assistance along three lines, the first of which relates to the restoration of the Iraqi debt to this country on the part of the US private financial sector,” Svinarov said on his return from the US.
Increasing the amounts of US funds for foreign military financing and US participation in Bulgarian projects for army modernisation were the other two areas of US financial assistance noted by Svinarov. He said the parameters of the US aid for the Bulgarian army would be known in March.
Regarding the US military bases in Bulgaria, Svinarov said the US president has already made a decision in principle on the matter.
“The hearings in the US senate and house of representatives are expected to end by March 15,” Svinarov said.
“In my meetings with secretary of defense Rumsfeld and Stephen Hadley, assistant to the president for national security affairs, I found that Bulgaria is already being considered as a country worthy of political reliance.”
According to Svinarov, the Bulgarian national decision about the contingent in Iraq will most probably be taken also in March.
Svinarov said that it was unlikely that an Iraqi government with which Bulgaria could hold talks would be constituted before March.
“The trend of developments of the operation in Iraq shows that a Bulgarian military presence in the form in which we are now participating in the operation would not be necessary after the end of 2005,” Svinarov said.
He said that this meant that Bulgarian involvement in Iraq after the end of 2005 could be in any other form for Iraq’s reconstruction. but not a military presence.
He said that his statement outlined parameters and did not predetermine the Bulgarian decision.
According to Svinarov, without building local forces able to overcome the existing opposition in Iraq, it was not possible to speak about the departure of the coalition forces.
