Bulgaria Stopped Selling Arms to Sri Lanka after War Escalation

Bulgaria sold arms to Sri Lanka only during the stalemate phase of the civil war, according to Bulgarian Deputy Minister.

Bulgaria stopped selling weapons to Sri Lanka immediately after the civil war conflict in the country escalated.

This was announced by Bulgaria's Deputy Economy Minister, Yavor Kuyumdzhiev, in response to a publication in The Times claiming that Bulgaria, among several other European states, sold weapons to Sri Lanka during the last three years of the civil war between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

According to The Times, this contradicted the Ethical Code of the EU even though there was no UN embargo on arms sales to Sri Lanka.

Kuyumdzhiev said Bulgaria sold only small quantities of arms to Sri Lanka, and primarily ammunitions. He did not specify the exact quantities or their value.

"We have sold weapons to Sri Lanka but not for the civil war. And not only we, a lot of EU states sold arms to the sovereign government of the country. When the situation there escalated, we stopped the supplies. We never sold anything to the Tamil Tigers", the Deputy Minister told Darik Radio.

He pointed out Bulgaria sold arms to the Sri Lanka government only during the several years of stalemate in the civil conflict, and that there had been no arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council and no ban by the EU.

 

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