Parliament Committees to Hear Bulgarian FM, DefMin

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov (L) and Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev (R). Photo: BGNES

The Bulgarian parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defence committees will hold hearings of Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov and Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev on Wednesday.

The ministers are to provide up-to-date information on the state of the security environment in the Black Sea.

The Black Sea has been in the focus of discussions in the past weeks due to a controversial proposal for the establishment of joint Black Sea flotilla between Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov revealed that the issue had been raised by his Romanian counterpart Dacian Ciolos and was later reiterated by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

On both occasions, Borisov turned down the Romanian proposals, saying that he does not want to risk confrontation with Russia.

However Iohannis said that during his visit to Bulgaria earlier this month he had been misunderstood and that he had proposed the holding of joint navy training between the three countries rather than the establishment of flotilla.

In a joint briefing last week, Mitov and Nenchev similarly stated that Bulgaria had not made any commitments to participate in a joint Black Sea flotilla or any other regional initiatives with Romania and Turkey.

The two committees will also discuss the positions of Bulgaria for its participation in the forthcoming summit of NATO in Warsaw on July 8 and 9.

The framework positions that Bulgaria will champion at the summit were approved by the government last week.

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