PM Denkov at a hearing in Parliament: There will be no decison to send Bulgarian soldiers to Ukraine while I am Prime Minister (update)

Bulgaria and Ukraine have not discussed a bilateral agreement in the filed of security, Prime Minister, Nikolai Denkov, and Defence Minister, Todor Tagarev, said on February 29 from the rostrum of the Parliament.

The two were heard by MPs after French President Emmanuel Macron's speech at February 26 meeting in Paris on Ukraine, which was also attended by the Bulgarian Defence Minister. At that meeting, Macron announced that sending ground troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out in the future, but pointed out that there was no consensus at this stage.

"While I am Prime Minister, we will never discuss and there will never be a decision to send Bulgarian soldiers to Ukraine. This has not changed, it will not change and any attempts to invent such topics have no relevance to the Bulgarian government today.

"With regard to the declaration we signed with the Prime Minister of Ukraine, it does not make any new commitments for Bulgaria, it has been adopted by the Council of Ministers and therefore does not require ratification by the National Assembly. No bilateral agreement is currently under discussion and has not been discussed. If such an agreement is prepared, it will be submitted to the Parliament for ratification," Denkov said.

Defence Minister, Todor Tagarev, said he had only signed a letter of intent with his Ukrainian counterpart and anything submitted as a request from the Ukrainian side would be submitted to Parliament for discussion.

"It is a general text in which we confirm our readiness to help with political, diplomatic, humanitarian and military measures and expand cooperation in education and training of Ukrainian military on our territory. Any action on it will require your approval," Tagarev said.

Denkov and Tagarev also clarified that the meeting in Paris was a working exchange of views and no decisions were taken. The opposition said it did not believe Denkov and Tagarev's claims.

At the end of the debate, despite the unequivocal statements of the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister, the opposition showed that they did not believe, the Bulgarian Socialist Party once again demanded the resignation of the government.

The Council of Ministers published the full text of the statement signed in Kiev between the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Ukraine during Nikolai Denkov's visit to the Ukrainian capital on 26 February.

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