NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg arrived on a visit to Bulgaria last night after taking part in the B9 initiative in Slovakia. At that summit, Bulgaria was represented by President Rumen Radev, who commented from Košice that some of the texts from the final declaration at the summit, drawn up in advance, constituted a threat to the implementation of infrastructure projects that were of national interest to Bulgaria, and that he had made sure they were scratched from the document. Rumen Radev did not give any details but the texts in question were probably those against the implementation of the gas projects Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream.

Hours before the start of Jens Stoltenberg’s visit to Bulgaria, the Bulgarian president urged the government from Slovakia to “materialize” the visit to Bulgaria by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev scheduled for 4 and 5 March, so the country would not fall hostage to foreign interests. These words by Rumen Radev came as confirmation that the two visits, besides individually, should be regarded as interconnected. But also in light of the warning by US Vice President Mike Pence at the Munich security conference who said: “We will not stand idly by while NATO allies purchase weapons from our adversaries. We cannot ensure the defense of the West if our allies grow dependent on the East.”

Media in Bulgaria have been giving extensive coverage to President Radev’s comments. One outlet noted that what he obviously meant by interests “foreign” to Bulgaria are interests that are also foreign to Russia. The Bulgarian president has given vent to similar views on many other occasions since the start of his term of office. When it comes to energy projects, there was another president – Georgi Parvanov – who equated national with Russian interests. And not just regarding South Stream, later transformed into TurkStream, but also regarding the resumption of construction of the Belene nuclear power plant, a project shelved for years. Another former president, Rosen Plevneliev, took the opposite view, as did Boyko Borissov on some of the issues, though with varying nuances during his various terms of office.

A working dinner with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov before the official start of Jens Stoltenberg’s visit to Sofia came to confirm that what Bulgaria and NATO’s agenda have in common are joint work in the sphere of security and defence, the deal for new fighter jets for Bulgaria’s air force, the military budget and the situation in the Western Balkans and in the Black Sea region. There can be no surprises on what the main points in the visit by Dmitry Medvedev will be: cooperation in energy, economy and tourism. As to what the connection is between the visit by Russia’s prime minister and the NATO’s secretary general – that is something that can only be analyzed after the two visits are over.

English version: Milena Daynova