Bulgarian Opposition Demands Demilitarization of Black Sea

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Korneliya Ninova. File photo, BGNES

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has submitted to Parliament a draft resolution calling on the government to declare the Black Sea a demilitarized zone.

Bulgaria's Parliament should also urge the legislatures of all countries of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) to embrace the initiative, Focus News Agency quotes BSP leader Korneliya Ninova as saying.

BSEC includes Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

The move comes days after Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's proposal that there should be no military presence in the Black Sea, which was made against the backdrop of a NATO Summit where measures were agreed to bolster the alliance's eastern flank.

Ninova has maintained the positions of the ministers of defense and foreign affairs are in a stark contrast with that of the Prime Minister, and Bulgaria has to take a stance.

"Either ministers take on commitments and the Prime Minister doesn't know, which is bad, or they take on commitments and he does know, which is worse," she has opined, warning such behavior could throw the country into a "war".

Bulgaria's Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev and Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov come from the quota of junior coalition partner Reformist Bloc, which shares many of the NATO positions on the need to counter a potential aggression in Eastern Europe.

Borisov, in contrast, has been wary of moves that could inflame tensions with Russia, declining in June a Romanian proposal that a joint naval force be set up in the Black Sea.

He then expressed his anger at the two ministers, amid reports they had accepted the invitation while meeting Romanian counterparts, two week before the alliance's Warsaw Summit.

This is the second time in two days that socialists are making a demand that is in line with Borisov's positions. On Wednesday, the BSP called for the revarsal of a ban on the construction of a nuclear plant on the site of abandoned Belene project, something Borisov welcomed.

 

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