Bulgaria's PM Denkov: There is a clear prospect that Ukraine will become a member of NATO

"What I expect is to have an end result that explicitly says that Ukraine will be invited when circumstances allow. In terms of content, this is consistent with the declarations of both the Parliament and the Council of Ministers, which were adopted very recently. There will be a clear prospect that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, but the conditions for this should be in place. As long as Ukraine is in a state of war with a neighbouring country, it cannot be accepted, but the conditions under which it will eventually be accepted will be clear," Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said at the NATO meeting in Vilnius on July 11.

In his words, Bulgaria is in line with what is expected in Vilnius as a final result.

"For the first time since the Cold War there is the formation of such regional plans to prepare countries in case of a possible attack from the East. And in this respect we are in a new situation. What is important for us is to build on the capacity that we have today and for this capacity to be built in, fully integrated with the capacities of the neighbouring countries - Romania, Turkey, as well as with the other NATO countries," Nikolai Denkov added.

He clarified that a second battle group is not expected.

"What is expected is to reward the current group, the so-called battle group, it is at the battalion level, to use our terms. But it needs to be upgraded, expanded, with combat capabilities, with personnel, so that it goes to the brigade level, which is the next level of scale of a battle group," Denkov added.

Bulgaria has certainly already set next year's spending to be 2% and the following year's to be even higher in connection with the acquisition of the combat aircraft, Denkov added.