Kiril Petkov after the meeting with Lloyd Austin: US commits a "Stryker" company to the Bulgarian army

US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, met with Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov, on March 19.

The United States has agreed to commit a Stryker company - this is a strong sign to our allies. This was announced by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov after the meeting with the US Defence Secretary.

The company is under the command of the Commander-in-Chief for Europe and we will propose to put a Bulgarian in command of that company, Petkov added.

The issue of sending military forces to Ukraine has not been discussed, Kiril Petkov stressed.

At the moment we are only talking about humanitarian aid, about a common strategy, about strengthening the Eastern flank. A decision on military aid is not possible at this stage and it can only be taken by the National Assembly, Kirill Petkov stressed in response to a question.

Answering BNT question whether there had been any discussions about sending military power to Ukraine, such as air defence systems, Lloyd Austin said that the talks had focused on efforts to strengthen the Eastern flank.

We thank Bulgaria for being a framework country for a battle group here. Thank you for your efforts, Austin added.

I want to thank the U.S. Secretary of Defence for being a true ally to Bulgaria at this critical time. Unfortunately, there is no longer any country that can live with the illusion of complete security. Our security is in collective defence with our NATO allies. We are NATO, underlined Prime Minister Kiril Petkov.

The Bulgarian government has a clear task to strengthen our defences, Petkov explained.

Other highlights of the talks included military mobility - from the Mediterranean Sea Alexandroupolis - Bourgas - Varna - Constanta by road, train line, Danube bridge, Petkov added.

Russian aggression has brought NATO and Europe together. We are very impressed by the courage and determination of the Ukrainian people. Their struggle is critical to the international order and to the common values that the U.S. and Bulgaria share, Lloyd Austin said.

I have personally seen those values reflected in the warm welcome we have been given.

We applaud all that you are doing to send humanitarian aid to Ukrainian citizens, Austin added.

He stressed that a very important step is the creation of a multinational NATO group and our partnership has never been stronger.

Yesterday, Lloyd Austin and his Bulgarian counterpart Dragomir Zakov visited the Bezmer air base and the Novo Selo training ground, where the Bulgarian battalion, which is directly under NATO, is training.