On March 30, Ukraine and Bulgaria signed a security cooperation agreement. The document предусматривает military support and the development of joint defense projects.
This was reported by European Pravda.
The signing was announced by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Acting Prime Minister of Bulgaria Andrey Gyurov during a joint briefing in Kyiv.
According to Zelenskyy, the parties signed a bilateral document on security cooperation, which the teams had been working on for a long time. The agreement is valid for 10 years.
“The main points are the continuation of military support from Bulgaria, which we discussed today; joint production of various weapons on the territory of our countries, including drones. We also discussed that Bulgaria will use the SAFE program for such joint production,” Zelenskyy said.
Gyurov stated that the agreement is not a formality but предусматривает joint work in the field of Atlantic security.
“Today, together with the president, we signed a security cooperation agreement that had been in preparation for a long time. I am glad that we were able to do this this time. This is not just some formality, it is joint work in the dimension of our shared Atlantic security,” Gyurov said.
He also noted that the Bulgarian government approved a national contribution to NATO’s PURL program, under which European partners finance the purchase of American weapons for Ukraine.
“I am grateful for the positive signal that Bulgaria is joining the PURL program. And here, first of all, the signal itself is important. Secondly, it is an opportunity for us to strengthen our air defense strategy ahead of the next heating season,” the President of Ukraine commented.
As reported by the Office of the President, in total Ukraine has already concluded 29 bilateral security agreements within the framework of the G7 Joint Declaration on support for Ukraine, adopted in Vilnius in July 2023: with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Latvia, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Japan, the United States, the EU, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Luxembourg, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Ireland, Greece, Albania, and Bulgaria.